Christopher and the Rats of NIMH
by FirecrackerWolf
Summary: Christopher Fitzgibbons decides to take a trip to his Uncle and Aunt's house to get some photography into his career but then he comes across a mysterious looking blue stone while taking pictures and when he touches it he then finds himself shrunk. He will venture out into a whole new world and he never thought anything like this would actually happen.
1. Christopher Fitzgibbons

_**There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception ~ Aldous Huxley **_

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**Christopher Fitzgibbons**

* * *

Nicodemus had a thin-looking stick with a little fire on it and his shaky, old hand lit a single candle that was at his desk with that stick. Cobwebs could be seen everywhere, with old books and bottles covered in dust. Nicodemus was a very old rat but he was very wise.

Nicodemus then opened an old looking book and then he grabbed his quill and dipped it into some ink in his inkpot and when he took his quill out of the ink pot, flowing particles of magic flowed out. It was very strange but it was also impossible. He then began to write and as he did the words began to glow a radiant golden yellow as if they were drops from the sun.

As he wrote his words he spoke what he was writing as if someone else was in the room with him. "Jonathan Brisby… was killed today while helping with the Plan… It is four years since our departure from NIMH." He then dabbed his quill back into the inkpot and then continued to write as the magic particles on the words glowed the same beautiful golden yellow color and then disappeared into regular black words. "And our world is changing. We cannot stay here much longer. Jonathan was a dear friend… I'm lost in knowing how to help his widow… She knows nothing of us or the Plan." He then dabbed his quill back into the inkpot and continued to write. "Perhaps best that I do nothing at present. I shall miss him." He then wrote his signature in the book.

He then picked up from an open box a beautiful, shiny-looking necklace that was a golden color and on it was a bright, red stone. His reflection could be seen on the stone as he looked at it sadly. "Jonathan… wherever you are… your thoughts must comfort her. She'll be waiting and you will not return." He then gingerly placed the necklace back into the box that had his first initial on it and then closed it and then he patted the top of the box with both of his hands. "Very well… my friend."

* * *

It was a beautiful sunny day and it wouldn't be long for Christopher Fitzgibbons until he got to his Uncle Paul and Aunt Beth's farm. He was driving in his polar white mustang cobra from New York City for a nice whole week of a vacation. He left New York for his job and he was a photographer and he really needed this vacation (mostly because it was for work). He was losing a lot of inspiration back in the city and he thought that the only way he could get his inspiration back was if he spent the whole week in the countryside. He hadn't been in the countryside for a long time ever since he left it for his photography job back in the city. When he first settled into the city it felt like Hell for him but since he's been living there for a while he now had no problem with it.

Chris breathed in the fresh air and it was very calming. He always loved the countryside when he was growing up and some memories came to him and some of them made him chuckle. Whenever it rained outside when Chris was a kid he didn't waste any time and always went out in the pouring rain, splashing in the puddles, playing in the mud, and sometimes he even stuck his tongue out as if it was snowing. His Mom would scold him whenever she found him playing in the rain and would always tell him to go wash up.

Those were the good days.

Nowadays it was mostly adult stuff that Chris was always worried about and it was mostly bills and bills and more bills. He didn't have any financial problems but it always stressed him out. He knew better though than to drink or smoke away from his problems. He wasn't a smoker or an alcoholic and if he had to choose between those and living with rats he'd choose the rats.

He was a tall twenty-four-year-old man with a brown short haircut and green eyes. He was wearing jeans, a denim jacket, a white t-shirt, and white sneakers. He was also wearing some sunglasses to block the sun from blinding him as he was driving.

Chris looked at his gas gauge and he saw that it was almost empty. Luckily for him, there was a gas station a few drives ahead and as soon as he got close enough to it he pulled into the nearest gas pump and parked his car. He got out of his car and then he paid the gas pump what he wanted with his debit card and then he started to fill up his car. After he filled his car up with gas he then started to hear his phone ring in the passenger seat. He put the pump back to where it belonged and then he opened the passenger door of his car and pulled out his phone. He opened his phone and as he did the aerial popped up and then he put the phone near his ear.

"Hello, this Christopher Fitzgibbons," Chris answered.

"Hi Chris, it's your Aunt Beth," replied his Aunt on the phone.

Chris had his arm on the door of the passenger seat. "Aunt Beth, hi, how are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm doing just fine. I just wanted to call you and ask you if you were anywhere close to the farm."

"Yeah, I should be there soon. I was just finishing up filling my car with gas."

"Good, because Billy keeps asking me nonstop about when you were getting here. He's really excited to see you again."

Billy was Chris's younger cousin and he could be a pain in his ass from time to time. Whenever Chris and his parents came over to the farm to visit, Billy would always want to have some fun with Chris and would ask him a lot of questions and sometimes Chris couldn't even answer some of them. Sometimes for the fun of it, Chris would pull some pranks on Billy just so he would leave him alone and back then he was pretty good with his pranks. A lot of his pranks got him into trouble though and earned him getting grounded for two weeks.

"I bet he his," Chris said. "So how's Uncle Paul doing?"

"Well you know your Uncle, he works a lot on the farm to provide for this family but he's doing great."

"Well if you get the chance tell him I said hi and that I will be there soon."

"I will and we'll see you soon."

"Alright, bye."

Chris hung up the phone and then he tossed his phone into the passenger seat and then closed the door to the passenger seat and then he made his way to the driver's seat and closed the door and he started the car and continued on his way to the farm.

* * *

After a while of driving, Chris finally made it to the driveway of the farm. It was just how he remembered it and nothing seemed to have changed here. It was as every farm field should be, nice and green. Chris then parked his car the best he could and then looked out the window to the house. It looked very nice as usual standing tall-even though it wasn't a tower from the city.

Chris popped the trunk of his car and when he took only one of his feet out of the car he felt his foot step into something mushy. He looked down and he gagged when he saw he stepped into some cat poop. He wiped his foot on the green grass and then he carefully placed his other foot away from the poop and muttered to himself and cursed as he was wiping the cat poop off his shoe.

"Stupid cat," Chris said under his breath.

Chris's Uncle, Aunt, and cousin had a cat named Dragon and Chris never liked cats. He especially hated their cat, Dragon. He never said it to them because he knew that it would've upset Billy. Billy loved many animals, especially cats.

Chris went to his trunk to grab his suitcase and carry-on bag and then he closed the trunk and then locked his car. He then made his way to the porch and as he did he could smell something divining that was making his mouth water. He then heard his stomach grumble and he then realized that he was starving after a long trip.

He then got to the porch and when he did he knocked on the screen door. He then saw his Aunt Beth approach the door. When she opened the door she gleamed at Chris when she saw him. "Chris, it's so good to see you!"

Chris and his Aunt Beth hugged each other. "Hi, Aunt Beth," Chris said.

His Aunt was a very nice woman and she was always welcoming to a lot of people. His Aunt had blond hair in a high ponytail and she was wearing a purple dress with a light purple apron and some high heels. Chris couldn't even imagine himself walking in his Aunt's shoes.

"Come in," Beth said and Chris walked into the house and placed his stuff on the ground as his Aunt went back to preparing dinner. Chris took his shoes off because he knew his Aunt didn't like it when people were walking around the house with their shoes on. "You must be hungry, why don't you take your stuff to the guest room and then come back downstairs. Dinner will be ready in a couple of minutes."

"Alright, thanks, Aunt Beth." Chris grabbed his stuff and made his way to the guest room upstairs. When he put his stuff on the bed he then made his way back downstairs just in time to hear his aunt.

"Dinner's ready!"

When Chris sat down at a seat near a table he saw his Aunt shut the screen door. Chris smelled the food and it made his stomach growl louder. His Aunt was a very good cook and made the best food that Chris ever tasted. His Aunt always liked to say that her food was made with love.

He then heard the screen door open and close and Chris looked to see that it was Billy. Billy was a redhead, with freckles and he was wearing a green shirt and some baggy pants. When Billy saw Chris he smiled. "Chris!" Billy ran over to Chris and gave him a bear hug. "It's great to see you!"

"Billy Lee Fitzgibbons," Beth said and Billy looked at his Mom a little worried. "What did I say about running in the house with your shoes on?"

Billy looked at his Mom guilty. "Sorry, Mom," Billy went back near the screen door and took off his shoes. He then sat in a seat next to Chris and smiled again. "Chris, wanna play a game tonight?"

"Not tonight, Billy," Beth said as she brought dinner to the table and on the plate, she brought was sloppy joes. "Maybe tomorrow though, Chris had a long day of driving and needs some rest."

Chris wanted to thank his Aunt but he didn't want to upset Billy. He then heard a cat and he frowned knowing who it was.

Dragon.

He saw his aunt look to the screen door. "Hang on, Dragon."

Beth went to the screen door and opened it and when she did, Dragon walked into the kitchen and went to his food bowl and started to eat his dinner. Dragon had dark gray fur, with one yellow eye and one blue eye. Chris thought Dragon was creepy looking. Not just because of his eyes but because he kind of looked more dog-like than of a cat. He even had a nightmare of him once.

He then heard the screen door open and close and Chris saw that it was his Uncle Paul and he was taking off his shoes. His Uncle had brown hair like him but he had a different hairstyle and he had a mustache. He was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt and the sleeves of his shirt were pulled up and he was wearing overalls. When Paul saw Chris he gave him a friendly smile and walked over to Chris and patted him on the shoulder.

"Hi, Chris," Paul said. "I'm glad you could make it."

"Yeah, it was a rough ride but I managed to get here in one piece," Chris said.

Paul chuckled as he sat down in a seat as did Beth. "That's a nice looking car out there, no wonder why you wanted to drive here and not take the airplane."

"That and I didn't want to get it stolen."

"Alright, boys," Beth said. "Let's dig in."

Everyone at the table started to eat their sloppy joes and as they did, Beth, Paul, and Billy started to ask Chris questions about how he was doing, what the city was like, all that stuff and Chris answered the best he could as he started to ask them some questions. It was a nice evening for Chris.

* * *

Chris was in the guest room finishing unpacking his stuff and putting them in their rightful places and as soon as he finished putting his last item in its rightful place he then laid down on his bed and sighed after a long day. He then yawned and rubbed his eyes and so wanted to get some sleep tonight. He reached over to the lamp on the bedside table and turned out the light and then rolled onto his side and closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

As he was sleeping he began to wonder what tomorrow would be like for him. He wondered if he would get some good photos in and if he would be inspired by something.

He also wondered if anything new would happen tomorrow.

* * *

**A/N- I couldn't stop thinking about this idea for a long time. I love The Secret of NIMH and I love how dark and mysterious it is and I think it's a very great movie. I don't know how soon I can work on this story, considering I'm also working on Where the Wild Calls. But I do hope you enjoyed the first chapter because I'm not sure if I did anything wrong in this but if I did please don't hesitate to tell me what I did wrong. But other than that chapter 2 will be here soon and Chris is sure going to be in one hell of a ride.**


	2. The Blue Stone

**Chapter 2**

**The Blue Stone**

* * *

It was morning and Chris was still sleeping in bed. Usually, he would've slammed the snooze button on his alarm clock a couple of times before he had to get up and go to work. Chris was not a morning person and whenever he woke up in the morning he could usually be an angry bear. He was snoring in his sleep and drool was landing on his pillow as he had his mouth opened. No work meant sleeping in.

Chris then felt something get on him and he startled awake when he felt claws scratching him on his back. He looked up and he was face to face with the freaky cat. Chris growled as he could feel Dragon's claws scratching him pretty badly. He then heard the back of his shirt rip and he immediately knew that Dragon ruined his shirt. Chris was furious.

He grabbed Dragon roughly and Dragon yowled as Chris got up and carried him out of the room and Dragon was scratching at him. Chris dropped the cat outside the guest room. "Stupid cat," Chris said and he then slammed the door.

Chris then rubbed his temples and growled again because not only did Dragon wake him up at a bad time but he also gave him scratch marks on his back and his arms and he could feel blood getting on him and making a mess. He thought it would've been a whole lot better if they had a dog instead of a cat because then at least it wouldn't have scratched him as Dragon did. Where did they even find Dragon at?

He sighed and decided to go take a shower just so he could get the blood off him and it did sting him but he held in the pain he was feeling just by clenching his teeth just so he wouldn't sound like a wuss. He was relieved when he found bandages in the bathroom after his very painful shower and he started to apply them on him and he had problems getting bandages on his back but he somehow managed to get them on there. He then blow-dried his hair and after he did that he then put his clothes on and made his way back to the guest room.

When he got to the guest room he pulled out his Kodak camera from under his bed. He made sure he had film in it and that everything was in place. He wanted to get some good photos in and he hoped that these would be good enough photos for his career.

He slipped the strap around his neck and made his way downstairs and as he made his way downstairs he could smell breakfast. He walked into the kitchen and he saw his Aunt Beth cooking up some fried eggs, some crunchy bacon, and some crispy toast. She was also brewing up some coffee. He then saw his Uncle Paul and his cousin already sitting at the table and Paul was reading the newspaper.

Chris pulled out a chair and sat down just as his Aunt Beth was setting breakfast on the table. "Good morning, Chris," Beth said. "Did you sleep well last night?"

"Yeah, I did," Chris said.

Chris noticed that his Aunt was looking at his arms with her eyes widened. "Chris, what happened to your arms?"

Chris put his arms under the table. "Oh, Dragon scratched me this morning while I was trying to get him out of my room." He didn't want to mention the part about Dragon scratching his back.

Paul flipped another page in the newspaper. "I was wondering why Dragon was making a lot of noise upstairs."

"I'm so sorry, Chris," Beth said. "I'll make sure he doesn't get into your room again. He's outside right now so you won't have to worry about him for now."

"That's alright, Aunt Beth," Chris said, even though he knew it wasn't. His thoughts transferred from Dragon to the food that was on the table and he started to smell the tasty breakfast. "This smells really good."

Beth smiled at Chris. "Thank you, Chris. I'm sure you'll find it really good once you start eating."

Beth then sat down and everyone started to eat their breakfast. This was a very good and healthy breakfast for Chris. When he was back in the city he usually ordered his food or made his food from the cans or the boxed food. He really needed to learn how to cook real food and not just the store-bought ones.

"Can I play a game with Chris today?" Billy asked.

"Not right at the moment, young man," Beth said. "You're going to help your Father with some farm work and when you get some of it done then you can play a game with Chris."

Chris took a sip from his coffee just so he wouldn't blurt out that he didn't want to play a game with Billy and he knew it would've been rude to say that out loud.

Billy looked at Paul. "Dad, do I have to?"

Paul looked up from his newspaper to Billy. "Yes, you do. Now finish up your breakfast so we can get some work done."

Billy looked down disappointed. "Fine…"

Beth looked at the camera Chris had around his neck. "That's a very nice camera, Chris. Are you going to take some pictures?"

Chris swallowed down a piece of bacon and he nodded. "Thanks, and yeah that's the plan. Do you guys know any good places I could go to, to get some good photos?"

"Well you could probably go into the forest near the farm," Paul said. "You might find something worth your while."

Chris thought about the forest and he didn't think it was a bad idea to get some photos in there. Plus it would be nice for him to go do some hiking. Back in the city, he would usually go out on trails but they weren't the same as the ones in the countryside. There were a lot of interesting things to see in a forest, especially here on the farm.

He remembered when he was a kid his old man would take him out on camping trips when he was on summer vacation. When they went camping they would work together to set up their tents and build the campfire after they got done with their hiking and then they would go to a very close lake near their campsite and go do some fishing. When it was close to nighttime they would roast hotdogs for dinner and roast marshmallows for their s'more desert. After that, his Dad would usually go to bed while Chris stayed up to watch the stars. He always loved to look at the stars and he always wondered how they were created in the first place.

As Chris was thinking he then started to hear the telephone ring. Paul sighed annoyed and he got up from his seat and he set the newspaper on the table. "I'll get it." Paul then walked away.

Chris watched him walk away as he took another bite out of his eggs. Beth then looked at Billy. "Billy, why don't you go wait outside? Your father will be out shortly."

Billy nodded and he finished the last of his breakfast and went to get his shoes on and when he got them on he opened the screen door and went outside.

Chris looked at Beth. "So how's the farm been doing lately?"

Beth sighed. "Well, we're managing so far. But we've been having some problems with rats lately. We've been setting traps out for them but we haven't caught any so far and Dragon has barely caught any. We've been thinking about getting them exterminated because we don't want to risk getting anything out of the ordinary."

Like everyone else, Chris was not one to like rats. They were disgusting creatures that got into anything their grimy paws could grab. They were pretty much one of the reasons why the Black Plague happened.

"They've been getting in the house?" Chris asked.

"A lot of times, yes," Beth said. "But please don't worry about it, Chris. We want you to enjoy your vacation. We'll take care of the rats."

Chris was a very helpful person and was always willing to step in to take over a very difficult task and a lot knew that. He was about to protest but he knew his Aunt was right, he should be enjoying himself but to him, it seemed pretty selfish not to help out with the rats. Instead, he kept his mouth shut by stuffing in the last of his food to prevent him from saying anything else further.

* * *

Snap… Snap… Snap.

Chris was out in the forest taking photos of the wildlife and so far he had some pretty decent shots. He took pictures of herbs, landscapes, the sky, and some animals. He'd been outside for a while but he was enjoying himself. He was walking some distances and then sometimes he took pictures of things that caught his eye.

He was carrying a backpack-mostly because his Aunt insisted that he take one-and inside it was just his water bottle. He did have some lunch in there but he ate it a while ago.

Chris then saw a pretty little flower growing all by itself but it looked very delicate, to say the least. He brought his camera near him and he aimed for the flower trying to get a good angle and position. Then he pressed down on the push-button and took the picture. It was perfect.

He then stopped and sat down on a nearby rock and he unzipped his bag to pull out his water bottle. When he pulled it out he opened it and took a few sips from it. He looked at the time on his watch and it was approximately 2:10. Chris thought it was time to call it a day. Tomorrow he would get some more pictures in. He put his water bottle back into his bag and when he did he then zipped up his bag. He then stood up and grabbed his bag and he put it back on his back and started to walk back to the farm.

As he was walking he then noticed something in the grass. It was pretty far from him but he could tell that something was in the grass and it looked shiny. Curiously, Chris walked over to where he could see the shiny object and as he got closer he started to notice that this shiny object was blue and it looked pretty small. When he got close enough to it he used his foot to move a little of the grass away and when he did he saw that the blue object rolled onto the ground near him. Chris looked bedazzled when he saw that the blue, shiny object was a small stone and it looked like there was some sort of gold chain on it.

Chris scratched his head and wondered how something as marvelous as this got out here. Did someone lose it? He began to think that it might've been his Aunt's but the chain looked way too small to fit around his Aunt's neck. Was it a child's? His Aunt, Uncle, and cousin didn't have any neighbors and plus it still looked too small to even fit around a child's neck.

As he kept thinking he thought about how it looked pretty beautiful. He thought it could've been worth something. He could use some extra cash for his work and it would be very helpful. Chris bent his knees and he then started to reach out for the stone. He couldn't wait to sell this and he wondered who'd be willing to buy this. He could already picture how much he'd earn by the time he sold this.

As soon as he grabbed it, something strange started to happen. The blue stone started to glow a very bright blue and this made Chris squint his eyes. When he could focus on the stone, his eyes widened when he saw that the stone started to get brighter and as it did he started to glow the same blue as well and when he noticed it he started to get confused but freaked out at the same time. What was happening? Before he could do anything he started to feel different and then all of a sudden he started to fall and he screamed.

He landed on something soft and when he did he started to roll down it until he hit a hard surface. Chris groaned in pain as he could feel his sides bruising from the impact. He rubbed his head and he slowly started to get up as he had his eyes closed.

_What the hell just happened? _Chris thought.

He then opened his eyes and when he did he noticed that something didn't seem right. He looked around him and everything seemed bigger than him. Chris shook his head and looked again and thought this couldn't be right. There was no way he shrank a lot of inches. He walked backwards and as he did he felt his back hit something and when he looked to see what he hit he looked shocked to see that he was facing his broken Kodak camera and when he saw himself in the broken lens of his camera he thought he was going to faint.

He was the size of a fairy.

"Holy hell," Chris shouted. "What the hell happened!? I can't be small, I can't be small!" Chris started to slap himself hard. "Come on, Chris, wake up! You're dreaming!"

The more he slapped himself the more his cheeks started to turn red. When he stopped slapping himself he saw that nothing changed. He was still a small man. He didn't know what his family would think when they saw him so small. He couldn't go back looking like this, he had to get back to his normal size. But how?

_The stone,_ Chris realized.

Chris looked around him to try and find the stone and he looked in every place he could. Eventually, he found the stone in some tall grass and he pulled it out. The chain on the stone now looked big enough to go around Chris's neck.

He narrowed his eyes at the stone. "I don't know how you did it but I don't want to be like this. Change me back." He waited for the stone to glow that blue color that he saw before but nothing happened. He thought this didn't look good. "I said change me back." Again, nothing happened. "Why won't you change me back!?" He growled and he then threw the stone to the ground.

He then heard some rustling in the grass. Chris jumped alarmed and he turned to where he heard the noise. It was close and he started to feel his heartbeats increase and he could actually hear it. What was in the grass? He knew it had to be some sort of animal.

Chris dug into a pocket of his pants and he struggled to get it out but he managed to pull out his pocket knife and he pulled out the blade part of it and he held it out towards where he heard the noise. He was surprised that his pocket knife shrunk with him, even his watch, his flashlight-that was in his other pocket-and clothes shrunk with him.

"Who's there?" Chris asked as bravely as he could even though he could feel his hand shake as he held out his pocket knife towards the grass. "I've got a knife here and I'm not afraid to use it!"

"Please, don't hurt me," a feminine voice said. "I didn't mean to startle you I was just trying to get a better look at you. I mean you no harm."

Chris kept his knife out. "If you mean it then I suggest that you get out here right now before I come in there myself! Show yourself!"

It was silent for a little bit and then Chris heard a sigh and then he started to see and hear the grass move and popping out of the grass was a female field mouse. Chris's jaw dropped as did his pocket knife.

* * *

**A/N- I thought I should work on chapter 2 for this and I think getting this chapter done was worth it. It's not much but it'll have to do for now. The next chapter for this might be a while but I will keep posting on this as soon as possible.**


	3. The Brisbys

**Chapter 3**

**The Brisbys **

He didn't want to believe this, he really didn't want to. It couldn't be real. Did that field mouse actually speak to him?

_No. _He thought. _Animals don't talk. I must be hallucinating._

He hadn't moved anything and he just kept staring at the field mouse bewildered. The field mouse was staring at Chris in fear but in wonder at the same time. They didn't say anything for a while and just kept staring at each other not batting an eye.

"Sir… are you alright?" The field mouse asked.

Chris gasped and he then pointed his finger at her. "You talk! You actually talk!"

The mouse blinked a few times. "Yes… I do. You talk as well." The mouse crawled up to Chris and Chris didn't like it and he had his hands up towards the mouse so she wouldn't come any closer to him. The mouse stopped a few feet away from him and tilted her head as she looked at him. "Are you… human?"

Chris looked at himself as he put his hands down. He then looked back at the mouse. "Why? Do I not look like one?"

He looked like himself again, but what wasn't like himself was his size. He was around the mouse's height but he was a little taller than her.

The mouse he was staring at had brown fur and blue eyes. What Chris couldn't get over on the mouse was that she was wearing a bright, red cape like she could be Little Red Riding Hood. The only difference between those two was Little Red Riding Hood was not a mouse.

The mouse pressed her lips together and kept them like that for some time as she continued to study Chris more. "You look human it's just that… I've never spoken to one before. I've seen them before but not up this close."

How could he understand that mouse? Did that stone have something to do with it? This whole thing was just jumbling up his brain like it was a messy room.

Chris looked at the stone he threw to the ground and it laid there as every nonliving object would. He walked over to it-even though he was still pissed at it-and when he got to it he picked it up. Why wouldn't it transform him back into his normal size? Why did it shrink him? And more importantly, where did it come from?

He heard the mouse walk up to him and as he did, he turned around and the mouse was standing near him. "I saw what happened. I've never seen anything like that happen before."

Chris looked back at the stone and as he did he then noticed something on the back of the stone. He looked at it closely and he saw that there were letters engraved on there. On it, it read: _Have courage and determination and the power within will be your savior._

What Chris just read made him furrow his brow confused. _What the f-_

"I'm Mrs. Brisby," the field mouse said. "Elizabeth Brisby. What's your name?"

Chris looked at the mouse that was named Elizabeth Brisby and he then put the stone with the chain on it around his neck-even though he didn't want to. "I'm Christopher Fitzgibbons, but a lot call me Chris for short."

Mrs. Brisby's jaw dropped. "Fitzgibbons?"

Chris looked at Mrs. Brisby confused. "Yeah, that's what I just said."

Mrs. Brisby looked as though she saw a zombie apocalypse occur before her very eyes. Chris didn't know what to feel at the moment.

"You're a Fitzgibbon, you live on that farm."

Chris opened his mouth and then he closed it. "What?"

"You said your last name was Fitzgibbons, then that would mean you live on that farm."

He took a moment to process what Mrs. Brisby just said. She understood what humans said. He wondered how that could be possible. If animals could understand what humans say then why couldn't the humans understand what the animals were saying? He felt like ripping his hair out at this very moment.

"How do you know about my family?"

"Everyone knows of the Fitzgibbons that live on the farm. There's the farmer, his wife, his son, and their cat named Dragon." Mrs. Brisby then narrowed her eyes in confusion. "How come I've never seen or heard about you before?"

Chris felt as though he was going to have a heart attack. It was like hearing her say that she and the other animals have been stalking his family like some of those creepy people would. He's heard news of people being stalked by some and eventually they get kidnapped and never seen again. The thought of animals being involved in that kind of scenario could only make him shudder.

Chris then cleared his throat awkwardly. "I actually don't live on the farm. I'm from the city and I'm here on vacation for my photography career. My family members you speak of are my Uncle Paul, my Aunt Beth, and my cousin, Billy. As for Dragon… well, let's just say that I don't like that creepy cat."

Mrs. Brisby looked at Chris curiously. "You're from the city? I've heard about it a lot from others but I've never seen it in real life before. But I've never heard of… what was it? Photigrophy?"

Chris couldn't believe he was talking to a mouse. "Photography: it's an art. Well not like painting or drawing but…" Chris looked at his damaged camera and he then pointed his finger at it and looked back at Mrs. Brisby. "You see that?" Mrs. Brisby nodded. "That's a camera. It takes pictures of things I see."

"Pictures? Camera?"

"It's like… oh, how do I explain it?" Chris thought and then he snapped his fingers when an idea hit him. "Okay, look." Chris stood still like a statue and then he did some sort of pose like he could be a model.

Mrs. Brisby looked at Chris like he was weird. "What on earth are you doing?"

"We humans pose when it comes to taking pictures and when we do we have to stay very still and let the camera do the magic. Then the pictures that are taken on the camera are stored on what we call film and on the film is of someone or scenery and it stays still and it never moves. Kind of like a tree."

He thought what he tried to explain to Mrs. Brisby sounded kind of stupid. It would've been a whole lot easier to explain it to her if he could just actually _show _her but he couldn't. Because for one: he was small. Two: his camera broke and he definitely needed to buy a new one as soon as he got back to his normal size and fast. But he knew damn well those things cost a lot of money.

"Oh," Mrs. Brisby said. She then looked to the sky and then she looked back at Chris. "I need to get back home. Do you have anywhere to go for the night?"

Chris looked around him and the only place he could think of that he knew about in this area was the farm. He just couldn't go back to the farm, not yet anyway. The thought of any other human being seeing him as a tiny human could only make him think that there'll be scientists experimenting and testing on him. He could already picture that nightmare happening.

He didn't know where he would go. If he tried to spend the night out here all alone, wild animals would probably try to attack him for food. One word popped into his head as he thought about the wild animals out here. Goner.

"No… I can't go back to the farm," Chris said. "Not like this."

Mrs. Brisby gave Chris a gentle smile. "Well, you can come with me if you'd like. I'd hate for you to be alone out here. It'll be dark out soon and being out here in the dark can be very dangerous."

Chris looked at Mrs. Brisby surprised. He hadn't done anything to help her but yet she was offering to let him stay at her place. It was very nice of her, Chris couldn't deny it, but he somehow felt that this was very wrong. He didn't know how her family would react when they saw him. He thought maybe he was jumping to conclusions and that maybe they would be very nice like Mrs. Brisby was to him. But would they really?

"Are you sure?" Chris asked. "I'd hate to intrude and I wouldn't want to alarm your husband or your kids."

"Oh, no," Mrs. Brisby said. "You don't have to worry about anything. You won't be intruding, I'm inviting you over."

"You're actually okay with this?"

"Of course I'm okay with this. You can stay for as long as you like so you can find a way to get back to your normal size. My children will be surprised to see someone as yourself, but they'll be on their best behavior towards you." Mrs. Brisby's eyes went down sadly. "As for my husband… he is no longer with us."

Chris's eyes widened. From the way she was looking right now he could tell that Mrs. Brisby missed her husband very much. He never had a wife before but he did have a girlfriend once. Tiffany Ashwood, but their relationship didn't last long because of their differences and Chris ended up breaking up with her. He never even thought about it but now that he did, he thought she looked like a whore back then. It sounded mean but he didn't care because she was always a bratty woman.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Chris said. "He must've meant something to you."

"Thank you, Chris," Mrs. Brisby said. "So would you like to come with me?"

He thought it would do him some good to stay at Mrs. Brisby's home. Besides, how could he pass up on her offer? "Alright, I'll come."

Mrs. Brisby beamed. "Well, whenever you're ready we should go."

"Just let me grab my knife and then we can go."

Chris didn't need a lot of effort to search for his knife and he found it in under one minute and when he did he put it back in his pocket and then he followed Mrs. Brisby to her home.

* * *

He watched Mrs. Brisby and the other Fitzgibbon member, Chris travel to Mrs. Brisby's home through his crystal-ball-like machine. He has seen what the future holds and what he saw was something he has never seen before. It all involves around Mrs. Brisby and Chris. He knew because he was a prophet for the rats. Not only was he the prophet for them but he was also their leader.

He has known of Chris's existence and he knew because Chris once saved one of the rats here when he was younger. The rat was as young as Chris and she always referred to him as a good man. Nicodemus could tell that Chris was a good man from what he was seeing.

"Jonathon," Nicodemus said. "I sense that Christopher Fitzgibbons will help her throughout the journey that is to come for the both of them… Not only will he help her but she will help him as well. What is to come will be very dangerous… but I have faith that they will fight through with it together."

He continued to watch as Mrs. Brisby and Chris travel to Mrs. Brisby's home.

* * *

His feet were killing him from all the running he's been doing. He was doing the best he could to keep up with Mrs. Brisby but she was much faster than him as she was running on all fours. He wished his water bottle shrunk with him because he felt dehydrated. He felt his shirt getting sweaty all over the place under his denim jacket and he felt like a mess. When he was in high school he was on the track team and he was a great runner but he never ran this much in his life and he felt embarrassed because at this moment he felt as though he was out of shape because his legs felt like Jell-O and the insides of him were burning like fire.

Eventually, Mrs. Brisby stopped and as she did, Chris took the time to stop and put his hands on his knees and he tried to catch his breath. Mrs. Brisby didn't look out of breath and she then began to walk. After a few more seconds of catching his breath, Chris began to follow Mrs. Brisby by walking. Even walking was still making him feel out of breath and he could already feel sores. All he wanted to do was dip his whole body in a bathtub full of ice.

Mrs. Brisby looked over her shoulder at Chris as she was walking. "Are you alright, Chris?"

Chris tried to smile at Mrs. Brisby. "Yeah, I've just never ran so much like this before."

Mrs. Brisby smiled at Chris. "Well, we're almost there."

They kept walking and as they did Chris started to notice a bright light up ahead of them and when he got a closer look at where the light was coming from he could see it coming out from some sort of house. Mrs. Brisby was walking towards it as Chris was following her and that's when he figured that it must've been her home. He couldn't tell what the house was made of but he could see a large leaf settling on top of it like was a roof along with an old, rusty-looking can from what Chris could tell was a chimney and the only reason he knew that was because smoke was coming out of it. Then he saw some sort of saucepan on top of the house and on the inside of it was a round piece of glass.

Chris furrowed his brow in confusion towards the saucepan and the round piece of glass. _Is that supposed to be a window?_

Chris decided not to ask Mrs. Brisby that question because he didn't want to look stupid, but he was pretty sure it was supposed to be a window. But what he didn't get was why there was a light coming from her house and why there was smoke coming from this supposed chimney. He then wondered if his kind was actually missing out on a whole lot from these animals.

As they got near the entryway, Chris got a better look at the house and he saw that the house was actually a cinder block. He didn't even realize that living in cinder blocks was a thing for mice. He then followed Mrs. Brisby into the house.

"Children," Mrs. Brisby called out. "I'm home."

When Chris saw the inside of the house his jaw dropped. There was a stairway leading to a lower floor and all over the walls were beautiful looking designs. There were candles lighting up the room, crafted furniture, woven carpets, pieces of fabric hanging up near holes, and some human objects hanging in places. He thought this place was very impressive looking. He couldn't even imagine how long it took to make this place look so homely. It looked nothing like he pictured Mrs. Brisby's home but this was quite something to him.

He wished he had a camera right now.

He couldn't believe he never noticed her house before while he was taking photos, but he guessed he was too caught up in other surroundings to even see Mrs. Brisby's house. It's not like he even knew about it anyway.

Then he saw three little mice and they all came near the end of the stairway as Mrs. Brisby made her way down and when she got to the bottom, the three little mice greeted her. Chris guessed that these three were her children. There were two girls and one boy.

One girl being the tallest had light brown fur, a big pink bow on the top of her head, and a purple dress with the skirt of it being puffy. The other girl being smaller than the other two kids had beige fur and a green bow tied around her like she could be a Christmas present. Then the boy being a medium size compared to the two girls had grey-brown fur and a blue shirt.

Chris thought Mrs. Brisby had some nice looking kids.

He didn't know what to do but he stayed near the entryway just in case things didn't go according to plan. But he didn't want to just walk away just like that and be rude to Mrs. Brisby. She seemed very kind and was even allowing him to stay in her home. He knew he should repay her for her generosity but what could a human like him give a mouse in return?

"It's about time, Brisby," Chris did not expect to hear another voice in this home besides Mrs. Brisby and her children's voices and this voice sounded like a grouchy person. When Chris turned his head he saw an old looking shrew wearing a light, blue apron, a purple scarf, and a light orange knitted hat and she was walking with a stick that was used as a cane. "I really must be somewhere."

"Of course, Auntie Shrew," Mrs. Brisby said as the tall girl wrapped a large blue scarf around the shrew that Mrs. Brisby called Auntie Shrew.

Chris knew that there was no way that this shrew was related to this family. There was just no way.

The shrew was about to ascend the steps and as she was about to she then gasped in fear when she saw Chris. She was about to fall on her back but Mrs. Brisby managed to steady her in time before she was close to hitting the ground. The shrew pointed a shaky finger at Chris. "What is that? Why is it in here, Brisby?"

When the kids looked up and they saw Chris they stared bewildered. Chris didn't know what to say. What could he say? He tried to think of what to say that wouldn't sound stupid.

What kind of amused him though was that the shrew didn't even realize that he was human. It was pretty obvious because he had no fur on him, no big ears, and no tail. What he had on him were skin and hair.

"Auntie Shrew," Mrs. Brisby said gently. "Please calm down, he won't hurt anyone. I met him today, his name is Christopher Fitzgibbons. He goes for Chris for short."

Chris knew he should do something before he made himself look awkward. He mustered the best smile he could and he waved a little. "Uh… hi."

The kids kept staring at Chris bewildered. However, the shrew was then narrowing her eyes at him. "Fitzgibbons, then that means he's a human and lives on that farm," the shrew said. "A _tiny _human. I would've thought that all humans were bigger."

Chris thought she sounded very rude and sarcastic but he tried not to get too worked up about this because he didn't want to cause any problems. But it seemed to him that a lot of these animals knew his family name. His guess was it all had to do with his uncle Paul and the rest that lived on the farm.

"I'm actually a big human," Chris said. "But I shrunk to this very size here and it's kind of a long story…"

"Humph, whether you were or not I don't have time for this nonsense," the shrew then looked at Mrs. Brisby. "Good day." She then ascended the stairs and as she was about to walk out she shouldered Chris out of the way without even looking at him and Chris swore to god she heard her mumble under her breath, "Smelly human."

_Nice to meet you too, you old grouch, _Chris wanted to say towards the shrew.

"I'm sorry, Chris," Mrs. Brisby said as Chris looked at her. "That's Auntie Shrew, she often comes over here."

Chris smiled at Mrs. Brisby, even though he got a little irritated by the way the shrew acted towards him. "It's alright, I mean it's not every day an animal comes across a tiny human."

"You can come down here, Chris."

Chris nodded and wondered if he should take off his shoes like his aunt would want him too. He probably thought it didn't matter since Mrs. Brisby and her children were field mice. He descended down the stairs and then stopped when he got on the next floor.

"Chris, these are my children," Mrs. Brisby said as she gestured to them. "My oldest daughter, Teresa, my son, Martin, my youngest daughter, Cynthia, and…" Mrs. Brisby looked around her confused. "Children, where's Timothy?"

"He's still in his room," Teresa said. "He hasn't come out of there all day."

Mrs. Brisby looked towards a cloth that was hanging up near a hole. It had three different cloth colors stitched together: light pink, purple, and a vomit green. "Odd, that at all doesn't seem like him." Mrs. Brisby looked at Chris. "Do you mind staying alone with the children for a little bit? I need to check on my son."

Chris smiled. "That's not a problem at all."

Mrs. Brisby smiled and then she went into the hole of where she was looking at, disappearing behind the cloth.

Chris looked at the kids and they were observing him. Then the boy named Martin walked up to Chris. "Are you actually human?"

Chris cleared his throat. "I sure am, kid."

The little girl named Cynthia got near Chris and was pointing at something. "That's pretty."

Chris looked at the stone that was around his neck. He then looked back at Cynthia and smiled. He thought she was adorable. He still hated the stone though. "It is isn't it? I found this a while ago. You wanna look at it?"

Cynthia nodded while gleaming and Chris got on his knee so Cynthia could have a better look at the stone. She held the stone and looked at it very closely in awe and Teresa and Martin looked as well.

"It's so shiny," Cynthia said.

Martin then looked back at Chris. "So if you are human then how are you so small?"

Chris looked at Martin and sighed. "Alright, here's how it went-" Chris then started to tell the story of what he was doing, how he came across the stone, how he met their mother, and so forth and the children listened with interest and they would often question him and Chris answered the best he could.

In the end the children all ended up saying: "Wow."

Then Mrs. Brisby came out of the hole that was covered by the cloth and she looked extremely worried. Chris and the children looked at her confused.

"Mommy, you okay?" Cynthia asked.

Mrs. Brisby smiled weakly at Cynthia. "I'm fine, sweetheart. It's getting late and it's time for bed, children."

Martin groaned. "Mom, can I stay up a little longer? I still have so many questions to ask Chris."

"You can ask Chris more questions tomorrow, but it's time for bed. Now hurry along." Even though Martin looked really eager to ask Chris more questions, he and the girls obeyed Mrs. Brisby, said their goodnights to their mother and Mrs. Brisby did as well, and the children went to their rooms to go to bed. Mrs. Brisby looked at Chris. "Let me grab something for you." Mrs. Brisby slipped into a room and a minute later she popped back out with a blanket, a pillow, and a purple shirt. She handed those items to Chris and Chris took them. "I'm sorry I don't have a more comfortable place for you to sleep for the night. Will you be alright sleeping on the floor?"

"No need to worry, Mrs. Brisby," Chris said. "I've slept on the ground many times in my life and I'm used to it. Thank you, though, for what you've done."

Mrs. Brisby smiled weakly even though Chris could tell that something was worrying her. "You're welcome. Goodnight, Chris."

"Goodnight, Mrs. Brisby."

Mrs. Brisby slipped back into the same room and as she did, Chris found a spot on the floor to sleep on and he then placed his pillow on the ground and his blanket. He looked at his shirt and he saw that it was still sweaty but he didn't mind. He took off his shoes, his jacket, and his shirt and he placed them near him. He then put on the shirt Mrs. Brisby gave to him and it fit him like a glove.

Chris then yawned and he felt really tired. He laid down and when he did he then started to fluff out his pillow and when he thought he fluffed it enough, he pulled his blanket over his body and he then he placed his head on his arm.

He then touched the stone and looked at it. He needed to find a way to transform back into his normal size and the only way he could was to try and figure out how to get the stone to work. How could he get it to work if it won't cooperate with him?

* * *

**A/N- Well another chapter down, and all I can say is that I'm glad I could finally get another chapter in after a while. It took a long time to write but I feel proud of getting chapter 3 down. I will have the next chapter out as soon as possible.**


	4. Tiny Human Survival

**Chapter 4**

**Tiny Human Survival**

Chris woke up the next morning and when he did he stretched his arms out as he yawned. His hair was a mess and drool was dripping from the side of his mouth as he sat up. Chris wiped the saliva off the side of his mouth and as he did he started to feel that his mouth was dry. He needed some water.

He looked around him and he almost forgot that he spent the night in Mrs. Brisby's home. He thought it was still a nice-looking house. It was, in fact, better than his apartment back in New York City. However, his apartment wasn't like one of those really poor apartments that looked like a dump. It was a normal-looking apartment but it was pretty bland. The only thing that wasn't bland in his apartment was his photos hanging on the walls and sitting on his furniture.

Chris looked at his watch and it was pretty early for what his usual time was for getting up whenever he didn't have anything important to do early in the morning. He didn't even know what time he went to bed last night but his legs were still sore from all that running yesterday. They weren't worse like they were yesterday but Chris didn't like how they were feeling today. However, he wouldn't let his sore legs stop him from moving around. He couldn't sit around all day and he didn't like to do that.

He picked up his shirt and jacket that he took off yesterday and he was about to take off the shirt that Mrs. Brisby loaned to him but when he took a whiff at his shirt it smelled horrible and Chris had to cover his nose. He tossed his shirt aside and then he put on his denim jacket and he was at least glad that it didn't smell awful like his shirt.

He then stood up from his sleeping area and when he did he felt his stomach growl. Chris sighed in annoyance but he knew he needed to get food in his digestive system. He then noticed a hollowed-out spaced pantry and in it he saw some types of food. He thought it wouldn't be a problem if he got a bite to eat from the Brisby's pantry. He walked over to it to see what was in it and all it was were beans, potatoes, black-eyed peas, and asparagus. He didn't know if it was safe to eat any of it but his stomach rumbled, begging him to eat something. Chris sighed and he grabbed a potato and asparagus.

He took a bite out of the potato and when he did he could feel a slimy texture to it and it had a rancid taste. Chris wanted to throw it up but he kept chewing it slowly and he could barely get the potato down his throat but he managed to swallow it all down. Chris wanted to throw the potato away somewhere but he knew that he'd only be wasting Mrs. Brisby's food, so he kept trying to eat it.

As Chris was trying to gorge down on his sad-looking breakfast, he thought that he needed to wash up. He smelled like a sweaty jock. He looked to the rooms covered with cloths and he could still hear the Brisby's sleeping. Without trying to wake anyone up, Chris looked around the house for something he could use for a towel. The only thing that he saw he could use for a towel was the blanket Mrs. Brisby gave to him. It wasn't really a blanket and it was mostly just pieces of cloth stitched together.

Chris gathered the blanket in his arm as he tried the best he could to finish down the last of his breakfast and as he did he then tiptoed upstairs and as he did he could see rays of sunshine shining through the hole. The sun felt warm on Chris's back but the wind made him get goosebumps. It was a February but it wouldn't be long until spring came. There was still frost in certain places but Chris could see the luscious green grass and some beautiful flowers blooming.

Chris then started to walk in a random direction, hoping to find a pond of some sort to swim in. He wanted to keep going straight because he didn't want to get lost in the middle of the woods. If he could've made a trail like Hansel and Gretel did in the Brothers Grimm story he probably would've if he didn't want to wander off in a different direction and get lost. He could've used pebbles but there weren't any around him and if he even had breadcrumbs on him they would've been gone in an instant.

He was trying to think of something else rather than his sore legs but he couldn't think of anything to think about. What could he possibly think about when he needed to focus on surviving out in the wild as a tiny human until he could figure out how to change back into his normal size?

After some time of walking, he then came across a pond with green looking water. Just looking at the pond made Chris very thirsty. He dropped the clothed-blanket and he got on his knees and was about to drink the water but he stopped with his face just a few inches away from the water. What was he doing? He just couldn't drink water out of a pond, if there was something he was always cautious about it was his health. It wasn't freshwater and he knew that if he drank out of this pond he would get an illness and he didn't want to get an illness as a tiny human.

Chris sighed and decided to take a swim so he could figure out what to do next. He hoped that he had enough food inside him for swimming. He stood up and then he started to strip off his clothes until he was nude. He then walked onto a big looking rock that was next to him and when he got on top of it, he breathed and then he dived into the water. The water surrounded him as he held his breath but with a few kicks of his feet as he had his arms to his sides he resurfaced and breathed for air.

The water felt a little chilly but that wouldn't stop Chris from swimming. He did different swimming strokes like freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and some other swimming strokes. He swam like a pro and he in fact used to be on the swim team. He was one of the best swimmers and he even had a few gold medals from his competitions. Even though his legs were sore he wouldn't stop swimming, he kept doing it.

Then to Chris's surprise, he noticed that the stone was glowing that bright blue color. He forgot that he was still wearing that stone around his neck. As it was glowing his body started to glow that same blue as well. Chris tried not to sink in the water as he was witnessing the same glowing as yesterday. As he was kicking he started to feel that his legs were no longer sore. Instead, it felt like nothing happened to them. Chris couldn't believe what was going on. What kind of sorcery was this?

Then the water around him started to glow that blue color as well and as it did, Chris saw that the water surrounding him was changing from green water to rather clear water in a wide circle. Chris blinked his eyes a few times as the blue glow disappeared from the water but he and the stone continued to glow blue. The circle around him that was water was still clear and didn't change back to the green water. Chris slowly cupped his hands and lifted some water in them. Chris wasn't sure about this but he prayed to God that he wouldn't get an illness and he toasted to himself inside his head to his health.

He then slowly drank the water and when he did he felt a very nice freshness to it and it didn't taste dirty at all. Chris was shocked and he looked at the blue stone. The stone got rid of the soreness in his legs and it made the water fresh. How was that possible? If it could do those things then why couldn't it transform Chris back into his bigger self?

He didn't know if the water would go back to being green again around him so he immediately started to gulp down lots and lots of freshwater. He couldn't bring himself to stop drinking the water and it was just too good.

"Chris?" Chris stopped gulping down water when he heard the sound of Mrs. Brisby.

He turned around and he saw her looking at him with her eyes wide and as she did the stone stopped glowing and as it did, Chris stopped glowing as well. The fresh water that was a circle around him even turned back into the green water. Chris felt awkward and he couldn't blame Mrs. Brisby for her reaction. What just happened was out of the ordinary.

"Uh… hi," Chris said.

"What on earth just happened?"

Chris looked at the stone and then back to Mrs. Brisby. "I don't know… I was just swimming and then all the sudden the stone started to glow and I glowed along with it. You're not going to believe this, but as the stone and I were glowing, the water around me turned into freshwater and I had sore legs after yesterday's running but now I don't feel any sores in my legs at all."

Mrs. Brisby blinked a few times with her eyes still widened. "That's impossible."

"I know, but it actually happened." Chris looked at the cloths stitched together and he pointed to it. "Could you hand me that?"

Mrs. Brisby looked at the cloths stitched together and she then looked back at Chris and she nodded. Chris swam towards land and as he did, Mrs. Brisby had the blanket in her hand. When Chris got to land and was getting out of the water, Mrs. Brisby looked away from him as she handed him the blanket and Chris took it and he began to dry himself off.

"You know you could've asked me for a towel," Mrs. Brisby said. "You didn't have to use the blanket."

"I didn't wanna wake you," Chris said as he put the blanket on the ground and he started to put his clothes back on. "I hope you don't mind but I took a couple of pieces of food from your pantry for breakfast."

"Oh, that's okay. I understand that you were probably hungry when you woke up this morning."

Chris put the purple shirt back on him. "You can look now." Mrs. Brisby looked at Chris and she sighed relieved. "You might want this shirt back and I'll give it back to you as soon as I can."

Chris saw that Mrs. Brisby was looking down sadly as she clung to her red cape. "I won't be needing that shirt… it used to belong to my husband…" Chris's eyes widened, knowing that the purple shirt he was wearing was actually her dead husband's. "You can keep it."

Chris rubbed his neck and wasn't sure about this. "Are you sure? 'Cause I don't feel right about taking it."

Mrs. Brisby looked back up at Chris. "Please take it, and you could say that it's my gift to you."

Chris looked back at the shirt but he sighed and nodded. "Okay." Chris then put on his denim jacket and his white sneakers and when he put his sneakers on he then began to tie them until they were tight enough on his feet. He then looked back at Mrs. Brisby and noticed that she had some sort of bag in her hand. "So what're you doing up so early?"

"I was searching for some more food this morning for me and the children and then I saw you swimming in the pond and I thought I would check up on you."

Chris combed some of his wet hair out of the way. "Well, I appreciate your kindness, Mrs. Brisby and thank you once again."

Mrs. Brisby kindly smiled at Chris. "You're very welcome."

Chris smiled back at Mrs. Brisby. "You said you were searching for some food? I'd be glad enough to help."

Mrs. Brisby looked at Chris surprised. "You would?"

"Well it's the least I can do since you helped me and I owe you one."

Mrs. Brisby smiled at Chris again. "That would be very kind you, Chris."

* * *

Chris and Mrs. Brisby had managed to find some food as they were walking and searching and they were now heading back to Mrs. Brisby's home. It had been at least twenty minutes and their teamwork really paid off. Mrs. Brisby had told Chris what types of food to search for and what not to search for and Chris managed to find exactly what she wanted. Chris saw that the bag Mrs. Brisby was carrying looked pretty heavy and he tried to convince her that she should maybe let him carry it but she insisted that she could do it.

He wished he had something good to eat at this moment. He really wanted to eat a juicy hamburger, with some fires, and a very cold and refreshing milkshake. The thought of diving his teeth into that stuff made him so badly wish he wasn't tiny.

"What's it like to be a human?" Mrs. Brisby asked.

Chris sighed. "A lot of things, but sometimes there's fun, drama, danger, and many other things."

Mrs. Brisby looked at Chris. "You said you were from the city, what's it like there?"

Chris started to laugh. "The city has a lot of tall building and when it comes to night time it can get very bright. It can get very noisy in the city as well."

Mrs. Brisby had a look of interest in her eyes as she looked at Chris. "So why did you move to the city?"

"I wanted to be a photographer there and I always loved to take pictures. A lot think I have a gift with using a camera and they even said that I should up my game in New York City and that's exactly what I did."

Chris noticed that Mrs. Brisby looked very worried about something and it looked like she was trying to hide it but it was very easy to understand that something was on her mind. Chris tilted his head. "Everything alright, Mrs. Brisby?"

Mrs. Brisby tightened her hold on the bag she was carrying and sighed as she looked down. "Not really… it's my son."

"Timothy?"

"Yes… he has a fever."

Chris's eyes widened. "Is it bad?"

"It's very bad, he is burning very badly and his breathing sounds as if he was gasping for his life…"

Chris didn't like the sound of that. There was nothing worse than getting sick and he's had his moments of sickness. He remembered once when he was a boy he was turning eight on his birthday but on that day he wasn't feeling very too well. Instead of a very happy birthday, he ended up having a very sad, sick birthday. When he was about to blow the candles out on his cake he ended up vomiting on it instead.

"That can't be good," Chris said.

"No, so I was going to see Mr. Ages to see if he had anything that Timothy could take after I got some more food."

Chris looked confused. "Who's Mr. Ages?"

"He was a friend of my husband's and he even helped us with Timothy once when he got a spider bite. He might be able to help with Timothy again if he's even at his home."

"Are you planning on going there all by yourself?"

Mrs. Brisby didn't answer for a few seconds but she then said: "That was the plan."

"I'd hate for you to go by yourself. Besides, what if something bad happens to you? There's a lot of danger out here."

Mrs. Brisby looked hesitant. "I… don't know,"

"What if I came along with you? If you really need to see this Mr. Ages then I'd like to accompany you on your trip. You've really helped me a lot and now I want to help you."

Mrs. Brisby looked surprised and she stopped and as she did so did Chris. "Really? Oh, thank you, Chris. Thank you."

Mrs. Brisby then hugged Chris and Chris was surprised but he let her hug him. He wrapped his arms around her and she felt really warm. Chris smiled as he stared down at Mrs. Brisby.

"It's my pleasure," Chris said.

They got out of their hug and continued on their way to Mrs. Brisby's home. Chris knew he should be trying to figure out how the blue stone activates on certain occasions but he felt the need to help the poor widow, but he couldn't help but admire her. She has managed to go this far without her husband and he wondered how long it's been since she lost him. He would figure out the whole blue stone thing some other time but all he wanted to do was help the nicest field mouse ever.

* * *

**A/N- Yeah, it's been some time since the last time I posted on this story, but I finished this chapter. I'm actually reading the book that the movie was based on and I'm really enjoying it so far. There's a lot of differences so far from the movie and the book, which I'm not really surprised about. I will have the next chapter on here when I have the chance and hopefully, I'll have more written in the next one. **


	5. Is There a Doctor In the House?

**Chapter 5**

**Is There a Doctor In the House?**

They were worried about him. He'd been gone since last morning and he still hasn't returned. Where could he possibly be?

Beth was sitting with Paul at the kitchen table as she had her hands folded near her mouth. Her hair was in a messy ponytail and she was extremely tired. She was hoping that Chris wasn't hurt or worse… even thinking about it brought her more stress. Chris was more like a son rather than a nephew and even though he was her husband's sister's son he was still like a son to her.

They hadn't told Billy because they didn't want a child to get worried. He was outside playing and Beth hoped that he wouldn't find out about this. That boy was too curious at some points.

It was complete silence and Beth and Paul hadn't spoken a word to each other as they were seated at the kitchen table and there was no breakfast. There was no point in eating at a time like this. Their stomachs couldn't even try to grumble for even a little piece of bread as if knowing that this was a very bad situation.

Then breaking the silence, there was a knock at the screen door and Beth and Paul's heads lifted towards it and they could see a silhouette of a man. Beth instantly stood from her chair and she went to the door to open it. When she opened the door, a cop was standing there. The cop was bald but he was in good shape.

"Afternoon, ma'am, I'm Sheriff Reeds," the Sheriff introduced. "I'm here because you called the police saying that your nephew's been missing."

Beth nodded. "Yes, that's correct."

"May I come in?"

"Yes, of course."

Beth held the door open for Sheriff Reeds and he walked in. Usually, Beth would've asked people to take off their shoes before they went any further in the house but she was too stressed to even think about that. She closed the door and followed behind Officer Reeds as he made his way to the kitchen table.

"Afternoon, sir, I'm Sheriff Reeds," the Sheriff introduced again.

"I'm Paul Fitzgibbons and that's my wife, Beth Fitzgibbons," Paul said.

"Please have a seat, Sheriff," Beth said. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Thank you, Mrs. Fitzgibbons," the Sheriff replied. "But I'll have to pass."

Beth nodded and she sat at the table next to her husband. She folded her hands in her lap and she and Paul stared at the Sheriff. Sheriff Reeds got out a little notebook and a pen from his pocket and he flipped pages in his notebook until he got to a blank one and he then pushed down on the plunge and it clicked as the socket came out. He then looked at Beth and Paul.

"I'm going to ask you two some questions and I need you to answer them the best that you can. Is that understood?"

"Of course," Beth said.

The Sheriff nodded. "You said Chris was your nephew, right?"

"Yes."

"Could you describe to me what he looks like?"

"He has brown hair, green eyes, he's muscular but not very and I would say he's around 5'8 inches," Beth said as Sheriff Reeds jot down what she said in his notebook.

"And what was he wearing the last time you saw him?"

"He was wearing some jeans, a jean jacket, a plain white shirt, and some white sneakers."

Sheriff Reeds jot down what Beth said again and he then looked up back at her and her husband. "And how old is Chris?"

"He's 24 years old," Paul said, "so pretty much a young adult."

The Sheriff once again wrote in his notebook and then looked back up at the two again. "Does he work on this farm?"

"He actually doesn't," Beth said. "He works as a photographer in New York City."

"For how long?" The Sheriff said as he wrote in his notebook.

"3 to 4 years I would say. It was his dream to be a photographer in the big city and after he graduated from college with a good degree he managed to get his dream job in the big city."

"Why was your nephew here then if he lives in New York City?"

"He was here for a 1-week vacation," Paul said. "He wanted to get some photos here for his job."

The Sheriff hummed to himself as he was thinking. "Would you happen to know if Chris has any enemies of any sort?"

Beth and Paul looked at each other. Chris had his ups and downs when it came to people but he never once in his life had an enemy. That's what they thought at least.

They looked back at Sheriff Reeds. "Not that we know of," Beth replied. "He's a very nice guy and a lot love him for it. He has never mentioned anyone being his enemy."

Sheriff Reeds slowly nodded. "No one?"

"No one," Paul said.

"And when was the last time you saw Chris?"

"Last morning," Beth said. "He was going to the forest near the farm to get some photos in for his career."

"What did he do before he left?"

"I gave him a backpack before he left and all he had in it was a water bottle and his lunch."

"Was he carrying anything in his pockets or in his hands?"

"He was carrying a camera around his neck and as far as his pockets we're not so sure."

"Do you know what kind of camera he had?"

"We're not sure," Paul said. "We're not really familiar with some of the cameras."

The Sheriff kept scribbling in what Beth and Paul said, getting in as much information as he could. As they were watching Sheriff Reeds jot down in his notebook, Paul placed his hand on Beth's hand to try and comfort her without looking at her. Without looking at Paul, Beth held Paul's hand and they waited for Sheriff Reeds to say anything else.

Yesterday, it was around night time and Beth noticed that Chris hadn't returned yet and this concerned her but Paul suggested that maybe Chris was trying to get some more photos in that he'll back later on. But when morning came, Beth checked Chris's room but when she did she saw that Chris wasn't in his room. She checked around the inside of the farm and outside around the farm but she couldn't find Chris. She thought that maybe he went somewhere like to a nearby town but she saw that his car was still parked in the same spot as yesterday. She immediately went to Paul and woke him up and told him that Chris still hadn't returned and she was worried that something bad might've happened to him. Paul was in no good mood when Beth woke him up but when Beth mentioned Chris still hasn't returned yet he told her to call the cops. Paul immediately got dressed and when he did he was about to set off to find Chris but Beth said he should stay here because help was already on the way.

After some writing, the Sheriff finally looked his brown eyes up at them. "Did he say anything about going somewhere else after he got some photos in?"

"No, he didn't," Paul said. "All he said was that he would be back soon after he got some photos in. His car is even still out there so we know for sure he didn't go anywhere else."

"Do you have any other relatives that know of Chris's absence?"

"Sadly no, Beth, our son, Billy, Chris, and I are the only Fitzgibbons members left. Chris's parents used to be around but they have passed on."

Sheriff Reeds stopped writing in his journal and looked up at Paul. "I'm sorry to hear about that, Mr. Fitzgibbons. May I ask what happened to them?"

Beth knew it was hard for Paul to talk about this sort of thing, especially when it comes to his sister. Paul sighed with his eyes closed but he then looked back at the Sheriff. "When Chris was 16 his father passed away from a heart attack and as for his mother… she died of cancer when he was 21 years old… It was hard times for Chris at the time."

Beth rubbed her thumb on Paul's knuckles feeling an ache in her heart. Chris went through a depression after his dad died but he had his mother to comfort him, but when his mother died from cancer Chris's depression grew worse but he somehow managed to get through it. Sometimes Beth would call Chris to see if he was doing alright and Chris would say that he was and said she didn't have to check on him at some points but Beth kept doing so anyway.

"I think I have enough information I need," the Sheriff said, "and don't worry. We will do everything we can to find your nephew."

* * *

They traveled to Mr. Ages home and sometimes they picked up their pace at certain points. Mrs. Brisby really needed to get to Mr. Ages so Chris didn't complain to her at how fast or how slow the travel process was. They were trying to be quiet and not make any noises as they were now near the farm but they were trying to stick to the fields. Mrs. Brisby explained to Chris that there was a lot of danger out here and being caught by one of these dangerous animals was very bad especially Dragon.

They then ran into a log that had nothing in it and when they did, Mrs. Brisby looked out through the opening and started to sniff the air and hear for any sort of animal that might be approaching and as she did, Chris looked out as well and looked around him but then his eyes laid on the farm.

Chris started to think about what his Aunt, Uncle, and cousin were thinking at this moment. Were they worried about him? Were they searching for him? He hoped that he would return to his normal size soon, otherwise he didn't know what would happen next.

He then looked at Mrs. Brisby and she was staring at something with her eyes narrowed. She then nodded and she looked at Chris and pointed at something. "There." Chris looked to where Mrs. Brisby was pointing at and at a far distance he could make out a worn down harvesting plow that hasn't been used in years. It was rusty and it was covered in weeds. He doesn't even remember the last time that thing was used. "That's where Mr. Ages lives. I just hope he'll be able to help."

Chris looked at Mrs. Brisby confused. "Why wouldn't he? He's a doctor isn't he?"

"You could say he is, but he really doesn't like any visitors. Just… try to be friendly with him."

Chris looked back at the harvest tractor. A mouse living in a harvest tractor… that was something. However, Chris could tell from what Mrs. Brisby said that Mr. Ages sounded like he preferred to be alone. He just hoped that there wouldn't be any problems with him.

He then looked back at Mrs. Brisby. "Should we get going then?"

Mrs. Brisby nodded. "I believe we should."

"After you then."

Mrs. Brisby loped out of the log on all fours and Chris ran behind her. After some running they then came to a brief stop a little away from the old, rusty harvest plow. Chris looked up at it and he could tell that this thing was in no condition to even try to work. Maybe if it got repaired maybe then it would work.

But as he was taking in the old plow he then jumped at the sudden boom he heard and the ground shook from that sound. He then started to see smoke come out of it. What was going on inside there?

Chris looked at Mrs. Brisby and she was making her way towards the plow and as she did, Chris followed behind. Mrs. Brisby started to climb up one of the weeds that was growing on the plow and Chris followed behind. He just hoped he wouldn't die doing this. He didn't even try to look down as he continued to climb up behind Mrs. Brisby.

Mrs. Brisby then made it to the top and when she did she helped Chris up. Chris was then on top of the plow with Mrs. Brisby and he followed her on the top of it to where they needed to go. Mrs. Brisby then dropped down to a level on the beam of the plow's and Chris did the same thing. Mrs. Brisby looked to an opening on the inside of the beam-which still had the smoke coming out of it-and she started to walk towards it and Chris followed behind again. As Chris was following her he started to hear some clanking like someone was trying to fix something.

"Mr. Ages?" Mrs. Brisby called out. "Mr. Ages? Is anybody home?"

"Go away!" Came a voice that made the inside of the beam echo. To Chris, it sounded like they came at a bad time.

Mrs. Brisby started to walk in the beam and Chris trailed behind her carefully for he could see that there were some pointy spikes in some places and he saw there was a very deep hole going a long way down and it was pitch dark. Chris gulped but thankfully Mrs. Brisby didn't hear him.

"Mr. Ages?" Mrs. Brisby called out again.

"What is it?" Came the irritated voice again as they came to an edge.

"I think he's too busy to talk," Chris said.

"Mr. Ages, may I please speak to you?" Mrs. Brisby ignored Chris and got on all fours.

"What?" Shouted the voice which Chris could only guess was Mr. Ages.

"I said may I please speak-" they then heard coughing and they gasped as they turned around to see an old, grey-white mouse near standing near the edge. "With you…?" Mrs. Brisby looked relieved. "Oh, thank goodness!" Mrs. Brisby breathed relieved. "I'm so glad you're home!"

The old mouse continued to cough-which Chris could now see was Mr. Ages. He had on a pair of specs and he was wearing a mended long-sleeved shirt that had patches on it and he was wearing a brown apron with some tools that were sticking out of it. "C-Confounded machine!" Mr. Ages then took off his specs, getting worked up. "You never know when it's going to up and blow!"

Chris looked at Mrs. Brisby not sure what to say at this moment but Mrs. Brisby kept staring at Mr. Ages. Chris didn't even think Mr. Ages saw him yet.

"Yes… I don't suppose you would remember me?" Mrs. Brisby asked.

"Yes, you're Mrs. Brisby," Mr. Ages said as he wiped his specs with his apron. "And I'm sorry about your husband's death." He looked at his specs after wiping them for a few seconds and he looked back at Mrs. Brisby as he placed them back on his nose. "Now if you'll excuse me…" He started to descend.

"Mr. Ages!"

"Great Jupiter woman, what do you want!?" Mr. Ages shouted, appearing out of nowhere at another edge.

"Jesus, can't you see she's desperate," Chris shouted at Mr. Ages.

Mr. Ages looked like he was about to shout at Chris but when he looked at him his jaw dropped and his eyes widened. Mr. Ages blinked a few times but then he shook his head. "A tiny human?" Mr. Ages took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "I must be losing my mind after that explosion."

"Mr. Ages, this is Christopher Fitzgibbons," Mrs. Brisby said as Mr. Ages placed his specs back on his nose, "but he goes for Chris for short and he came with me here and I know you don't like visitors but this is an emergency. Please…"

Before Mrs. Brisby could speak any further a loud boom sounded making the ground shake again causing Chris and Mrs. Brisby to crash to the ground and Mr. Ages to fall down and hit some things and then he fell deep into a hole. Chris could hear his ears ringing and he was lucky his eardrums didn't break. He was shocked though and it gave him a heart attack.

Mrs. Brisby quickly got up and scrambled down some more inside the plow and then she slid on a plank of metal and then descended off of it very easily and looked down to where Mr. Ages fell into. Chris got up and ran down to Mrs. Brisby, careful not to hurt himself he then made it to the plank of metal and he dropped down from it and when he did he almost fell off from where he stood but Mrs. Brisby grabbed the collar of his jean jacket in time before he could even drop into the hole Mr. Ages fell into.

Chris breathed in relief but he then noticed some rope hanging near the hole and he could see the rope moving up and he could hear something coming up, "Huh?"

Chris and Mrs. Brisby looked down into the hole to where Mr. Ages fell and they saw him in a basket ascending up. The rope was tied to the handle of the basket and Chris blinked in surprise to see that Mr. Ages managed to survive that fall.

"Ma-" Mr. Ages coughed as the basket went up. "Madame, _that_ is an emergency!" He said as he pointed down towards his situation.

"Why do you even live here if it's bothering you that much?" Chris asked the old mouse.

Mr. Ages looked at Chris with his brow furrowed. "Look here, young man. Not everyone has to have a perfect home. I choose to live here because it's the only place I can go. If you were me you would've done the same thing, there aren't a lot of places to go out here and most of the animals already have occupied homes."

The more Chris thought about what Mr. Ages said the more he could see that the old mouse made a point. There were animals bigger than him since he was now a tiny human and the chances of fighting for a home and winning was unpredictable.

"Now what was the name again? Christopher Fitzgibbons?"

"Yes, sir," Chris replied to the old mouse as the basket got near him and Mrs. Brisby.

Mr. Ages brought his glasses closer to his eyes and he squinted at Chris. Chris furrowed his brow confused as did Mrs. Brisby as Mr. Ages inspected Chris. Then Mr. Age's eyes slowly widened and his jaw dropped again.

"I don't believe it," Mr. Ages said.

"Mr. Ages, are you alright?" Mrs. Brisby asked concerned.

Mr. Ages shook his head and then he looked at Mrs. Brisby. "Yes, I just… wasn't expecting to see someone like him in front of my eyes." He then cleared his throat. "Now then, what do you want?"

"Oh, Mr. Ages… my son Timothy is so sick."

"Timmy? The one with the spider bite? Uh… oh just give him some pipsissewa-"

"No!" Mrs. Brisby grabbed Mr. Age's shirt and shook him as she looked worried about her son. "No, he's sick with a fever!"

Mr. Ages was surprised as he tried to find his words. "Uh… well… I suppose I could fix up something."

Mrs. Brisby smiled in relief. "Oh, thank you!"

"Uh, you and your friend here follow me but don't touch anything, understand?"

Mrs. Brisby nodded and got in the basket and as she did Mr. Ages started mumbling to himself. Chris then got in carefully after Mrs. Brisby got in the basket and he tried not to look down. Mr. Ages then reached out for the rope and started to descend the basket down and Chris held on to the basket just in case something bad happens.

"I do appreciate it," Mrs. Brisby said.

"Just how high is his fever?" Mr. Ages asked.

Mrs. Brisby started to answer Mr. Age's question and she started to describe how Timmy was and what his condition was and as she did, Chris just kept silent. However, whatever Timothy had really sounded serious the way Mrs. Brisby described it and how she was looking.

"A raspy sound you say?" Mr. Ages said as they came to a stop near a plank of wood and they then got out of the basket and Chris and Mrs. Brisby started to follow Mr. Ages. "Uh… does he have a chill?"

"Yes, he does." Mrs. Brisby said.

"Have you wrapped him in a blanket?"

"Yes."

Chris started to notice some bottles of vodka and other alcoholic bottles that humans drank out of and he also started to notice signs that said like not welcome **Go away!** Or **Danger!** He could tell that this guy really didn't like visitors and Mrs. Brisby was right. There were other human objects lying around and who knew that animals like mice used these human objects for building homes and other stuff like that?

Mr. Ages then entered through what looked like a room and he then looked at Chris and Mrs. Brisby. "Now step inside but keep your hands to yourself. I'm in the middle of something important."

"I understand," Mrs. Brisby said.

"Oh, do you?" Mr. Ages asked mockingly.

Chris and Mrs. Brisby entered into the room and when they did, Chris's eyes widened. In the middle of the room stood a candle lamp but it looked like it had some work done to it. At the bottom of it had some sort of liquid and it was making some sort of noise. He didn't know how some of these animals could do something like decorating their house with human objects. The inside of the room was very nice with very nicely detailed carpets, decorations, and tools.

Mr. Ages then walked over to the table that had some herbal remedies and other tools and as he got close a dragonfly flew off the stool in which Mr. Ages needed to stand on. Mr. Ages then mumbled about the mess he had at the table and then he saw a ladybug and shooed it away and then he picked it up and threw it away from the table.

Mr. Ages then cleared his throat and looked at Mrs. Brisby. "Your son has pneumonia."

Chris's eyes widened. _Well… shit…_

"Pneumonia?" Mrs. Brisby said.

"It's not uncommon but you can die from it."

Mrs. Brisby looked shocked. Chris has heard that this disease was pretty bad but he didn't expect Mr. Ages to know something like this. How did he know about this disease?

"Oh, please dear god no," Mrs. Brisby said as Mr. Ages got a bowl and started to add ingredients in it and then he started to mix them together with a smasher which Chris assumed was Timmy's medicine that Mr. Ages was making.

Chris furrowed his brow at Mr. Ages when he mentioned some bad information to Mrs. Brisby. "That's really reassuring," Chris said sarcastically. He noticed Mrs. Brisby furrow her brow at him.

"Your son must stay in bed, bundle him up," Mr. Ages said as he looked at Mrs. Brisby and continued to smash and mix the ingredients together.

"Yes…" Mrs. Brisby whispered.

Mr. Ages then pulled down a string that was near him and when he did, Chris saw some fire shoot up from a thin candle lamp towards a glass ball with some strange liquid inside it and when it did the liquid started to boil and make its way through a glass tunnel. It was like chemistry class all over again to Chris.

"Not to go outside," Mr. Ages said as he brought the bowl near where the liquid was coming out of and he continued to make the medicine with some other ingredients.

"But how long?" Mrs. Brisby said.

"Uh, three weeks." Mr. Ages then stopped in the middle of something and thought. "He cannot be moved for at least three weeks." He then went back to making the medicine.

"But Moving Day is nearly here," Mrs. Brisby saw an insect crawling near her and her jaw hung open.

Chris blinked in confusion. What did Mrs. Brisby mean by _Moving Day? _What even was Moving Day? Was it like a holiday or something?

"You asked my advice and I gave it to you," Mr. Ages said irritated.

Chris furrowed his brow at Mr. Ages again. "Geez, you don't need to be rude to her."

Mr. Ages looked at Chris. "I am saying the truth here, young man. Now don't take it out on me because my advice to her is the truth!"

Chris held his hands out. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry."

Mr. Ages sighed and then he looked at Mrs. Brisby. "Now, like I said he must stay in bed. Now mix this uh… this… this powder in uh in a broth and make him drink it." Mr. Ages dumped the medicine into an envelope. "It'll bring down the fever."

"Oh, bless you sir," Mrs. Brisby said.

"And bless yourself you'll need it. The both of you do," Mr. Ages said as he looked at Mrs. Brisby and Chris. Mr. Ages then jumped down from his stool and walked back towards the entrance the three of them entered through and Chris and Mrs. Brisby followed behind. Mr. Ages then gave Mrs. Brisby the envelope with the medicine inside it. "Now you must excuse me. Uh… you two know the way out?"

"Oh of course. Thank you once again."

"Shoo, shoo, shoo, go on now, go on," Mr. Ages used his hands to shoo Mrs. Brisby and Chris away but then Mr. Ages grabbed Chris by the arm and looked at him straight in the eyes. "You won't tell anyone about what you saw will you?"

Chris's eyes widened and he looked at Mrs. Brisby who was outside the room now and she just shrugged her shoulders. Chris looked back at Mr. Ages and he looked serious. Even if Chris wanted to tell anyone about this he highly doubted that anyone would believe him and they would think he was crazy.

Chris tried to smile at Mr. Ages. "No sir."

Mr. Ages hummed and then he let go of Chris's arm. "Alright then, off with you then." He then pushed Chris lightly out the door.

"Thank you so-" before Mrs. Brisby could speak any further, Mr. Ages shut the door in front of her and Chris's faces. "…much. Goodbye…"

Chris slid his hand in his hair and didn't understand what that guy's deal was. He thought Mr. Ages was strange because the way Mr. Ages looked at him was very odd to say the least. This whole thing was getting very surprising and weird at every chance it got.

* * *

**A/N- Yeah, I know it's been a while since I last posted on this story but here you go! I will have the next chapter out as soon as I can and until then have a nice day.**


	6. Dragon's Rampage

**Chapter 6**

**Dragon's Rampage**

Chris and Mrs. Brisby were walking back to Mrs. Brisby's home and they were silent. After they left Mr. Age's home they barely said a word to each other. Chris was mostly staring at the ground as he had his hands in his jean jacket for he couldn't get over what just happened back at Mr. Age's home. The way Mr. Ages looked at Chris it felt very unsettling to him. He thought perhaps that the old mouse preferred to have his privacy when it came to his home and work. He could see why because if a human being saw what was going on in Mr. Ages home the old mouse probably would've been experimented on.

Although, Chris was certainly surprised that neither his Aunt Beth, Uncle Paul, nor even Billy knew that an old mouse was living in an abandoned harvest tractor. Though Chris knew that his Uncle well enough to know that he was a very hard working person to even worry about what even lived in that tractor and it was pretty much the same thing for his Aunt. As for Billy he wasn't too sure about. He was after all a kid and he didn't know what Billy was thinking sometimes.

They then were walking on a big rock and a small ledge of it stretched out near a log and underneath them was a pond. Mrs. Brisby slid down it and then she pounced off it and she landed inside the log with a thud without the medicine slipping out of her hands and Chris did the same thing as her-although he almost fell into pond he managed to steady himself before a single skin on him managed to touch the cold water. They were then about to continue forward but they stopped abruptly when they saw something that really caught their attention.

Up ahead of them they saw a crow and Chris's brow furrowed in confusion when he saw that the crow was stuck in some red string. The crow was flapping his wings trying to get out of it but no matter what he did he managed to hit his head on whatever had a hard surface. Chris and Mrs. Brisby looked at each other and they had no words to describe what they were seeing at this moment.

Mrs. Brisby walked up to a hole that was made through the log and he motioned for Chris to follow her. Obeying her, Chris followed Mrs. Brisby and she climbed up the log and Chris then got a hold of a branch that was attached the log and he pulled himself up and was then atop the log.

They were then walking towards the crow. "What do you think this is all about?" Chris asked.

"I'm not sure," Mrs. Brisby replied.

As they kept walking towards the crow, they saw a whole bunch of red string tangled up everywhere on the log and around a branch. When they got close enough to the crow they looked down to find he was still trying to get out of the string while making frustrated noises.

"Is everything alright here?" Mrs. Brisby called down to the crow.

The crow stopped what he was doing and he looked up with his eyes widened. "What the…" He looked at Mrs. Brisby but when he saw Chris it looked like his eyes were going to come out of his sockets. The crow then screamed and tried to fly away. "Human! Help, the human's coming for me!"

Chris's eyes widened as he watched the crow hit his head once again on the hard surface. The crow placed his wings on his head and kept saying ow as he rubbed his head.

"Are you alright?" Mrs. Brisby asked the crow.

The crow looked up. "Quick lady, run for it while you got the chance! That human's going to hunt us down!"

Chris scowled at the crow and sighed. "Take it easy there; I'm not here to hunt anyone. I don't even hunt. Besides she's my friend."

The crow looked at Chris in astonishment but still in fear at the same time. "Oh… wait a minute why are you small? I thought humans were big? And how are you able to talk to me? Are all humans in different sizes? Can some of them understand animals as well?"

"Uh… it's a long story and that's a lot of questions you just asked me."

"We're sorry about that," Mrs. Brisby said to the crow. "We didn't mean to frighten you..."

The crow started to laugh. "Oh, you didn't frighten me, I was just sort of… working out." The crow laughed more as he had his wings crossed behind his head as Chris just looked at the crow a little weirded out, considering the crow did just freak out when he saw him. "You just broke my concentration, that's-"

"You look like you're all tangled up," Chris said as he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out his pocket knife and took the blade part of it out and this made the crow's eyes widen in fear again and Chris noticed. "Relax. I'm not going to cut you open like a Thanksgiving turkey. I'm just going to cut some of this string here."

Mrs. Brisby looked at Chris. "I'll help you."

Chris nodded and he and Mrs. Brisby started to get to work on helping the crow get out of the tangled up string he was stuck in.

"Oh… thanks," the crow said as he climbed up and this made Chris and Mrs. Brisby stop what they were doing and they looked at the crow. "I guess that's enough exercise for one day anyways. Besides, I'm after this really terrific string!" Jeremy hoisted himself up and sat down on the log. "I'm working on a love nest for two." The crow laughed again. "You two know what I mean?"

"Oh, I see," Mrs. Brisby said as she untangled a string from the crow's foot. "You have a girl."

Chris stepped on a string and held it and while he did he used his pocket knife to cut the string. "Bet she's a lucky one."

The crow lifted his foot up to try and get some of the sting off it. "Well, not really, I mean… I haven't found Miss. Right yet, but when I do-" the crow lifted his wings and this caused Mrs. Brisby to almost lose the medicine and so she had to go and grab it and while she did, she and Chris stood back while the crow was continuing to talk and he was doing it in a sing-song voice. "The whole world will hear us singing…."

The crow leaned back too far as he was daydreaming about a future mate of his and while he did he then tripped off the log and fell into the pond. Chris could easily tell that this crow really was a bird brain and this made him roll his eyes. However, he almost felt sorry for the guy.

The crow pulled himself back up by using the string and he was dripping from head to toe with water and he sucked in air as he tried to regain himself. "Excuse me, pardon me." The crow coughed.

"Well, you keep making all that noise and Dragon will hear you. If he hasn't already." Mrs. Brisby placed the medicine on a safe place on the log so she wouldn't lose it and got back to helping the crow out of the string.

Chris looked at Mrs. Brisby confused. "Why are you worried about-"

"Wouldn't you sing too?" The crow said as he shook the water out of his feathers and Chris grumbled in irritation that the crow interrupted him. "I mean if you felt-" the crow stopped shaking the water out of him and started to laugh as he dusted his wings and he then held on to the strings as he sat down like he was on a swing. "If you felt the call of the wild, but-"

"I would-" Mrs. Brisby all the sudden closed her mouth and then she started to whisper: "I would not, if I knew there was a cat nearby." She then bit into a sting that was around the crow's foot and the string broke.

"Okay, time out," Chris said as he used the time out sign with his hands and Mrs. Brisby looked at him as the crow was daydreaming again. "What's with you worrying about that stupid cat? I understand that the animals' main priority out here is to survive but why do you worry about Dragon? There's a very less chance that we'll run into him and besides there's other animals out here you could be worrying about at this moment."

Even though Chris wanted to admit what he said was true he wasn't too sure of himself. He's seen Dragon go a long distance to go do some hunting and the chances of running into him… he didn't know what would come of it but he hoped he wouldn't come across Dragon because that cat was ferocious like a tiger when it came to hunting. That cat was also hard to understand at some points and Chris could try all he wanted at what the cat was thinking but it never looked as though what he guessed what Dragon was thinking was correct.

Mrs. Brisby looked out to the field with a nervous look. "I don't know, Chris… I just have a feeling he's nearby somewhere. You never know where he could be. I think I can even get a whiff of him."

"But... but _she's _out there," the crow said, haven't listening to what Chris and Mrs. Brisby said and they both looked at him and they got back to cutting the stings. "Somewhere." The crow then stood up as Chris and Mrs. Brisby kept cutting the strings. "And when I find her I'll feel it, way down in my wishbone! I-" the crow's eyes widened all the sudden. "What cat?"

Chris sighed in annoyance that the crow wasn't paying attention and decided to answer the crow even though he was getting him a little frustrated. "Dragon, he's my Uncle, Aunt, and cousin's pet."

"What's a pet?"

"It's an animal you don't eat and you have as a friend… well most of the time."

"Look towards the house," Mrs. Brisby said as she was untangling a knot and Chris cut another string. "See if you can see him."

With a flap of his wings, the crow flew up causing Mrs. Brisby to yelp as she was pulled off the ground as she held onto the string, but she luckily got back on the log. Chris looked at the crow annoyed as the crow landed on top of a branch that was attached to the log. "Jesus, take it easy, you almost made her fall into the pond!"

As Chris was looking at the crow he noticed that the crow was looking at something in the distance with the bottom of his beak dropped skittish. He pointed his wing at what he was looking at. "Hey, there's a cat out there!"

Chris's eyes widened. _Please tell me it's just another cat venturing nearby…._

"Quiet," Mrs. Brisby shouted as quietly as she could. "Does he see you?"

"No," the crow said as he gripped the string tightly but then he laughed nervously. "Yes!"

"Okay, don't move," Chris said. "You move he's going to come near us."

The crow tried to smile at Chris but Chris could tell that the crow looked like he was about to have a heart attack. "Everything's fine." But when the crow looked back in the direction he was looking at his smile dropped. "He's headed right for us..."

Chris cursed in his head and if it was actually Dragon the crow was referring to he hoped that Dragon had his eyes fixed on something else. The last thing he needed was to be a cat's chow.

"Don't panic," Mrs. Brisby said trying to be calm with the crow. "Fast or slow?"

Chris could hear some wing flaps in the distance but he tried not to worry about it as he was trying to get the strings cut and loosened. He was trying to stay calm but he could feel his forehead sweating.

"Medium." The crow paused but then sounded panicked. "Make that fast. Very f- I have to go now! Excuse me, I really…"

The crow was then freaking out as he was trying to fly away but he was remained stuck in the red strings. Chris and Mrs. Brisby tried to help the crow more but when they did the crow almost knocked into Chris and Chris yelped as he dove out of the way and Mrs. Brisby ended up getting her ankle caught in one of the red strings as the crow kept trying to fly away and the string started to swing Mrs. Brisby out of control until it eventually came to a stop and Mrs. Brisby hung upside down like she was a bat.

"Will you settle down!?" Chris said as quietly as he could but the crow wouldn't listen.

The crow was then trying to pull on a string that was stuck to the branch he was on a little bit ago and he shouted: "Break!"

Mrs. Brisby managed to get out of the string that was tied around her ankle and she then jumped towards the string that the crow was trying to break loose and she bit into it and the string broke and as soon as it did, the crow rolled on its back and he almost fell off the log but he luckily caught himself on the log in time and he pulled himself up as quickly as he could as he was still freaking out.

The three of them then stopped what they were doing as they could hear something coming towards them under the log and it was echoing. They all looked down towards the inside of the log to see that something was approaching them at a fast rate. A very fast rate.

"Oh my goodness," the crow said weakly.

When the figure got really close, the crow screamed and tried to fly away but of course, the string held him back and it ended up getting him hanged upside down over a little bit of the log as he was still panicking. Chris and Mrs. Brisby looked to what it was the crow saw and what they saw was not what they were expecting. Hopping away was a rabbit.

"It's a rabbit," Mrs. Brisby said with a smile, and the crow then started to laugh.

Chris had to admit, it was kind of funny and he started to laugh as well. "Oh, my god! You got yourself worked up over a rabbit!" Chris then stopped laughing.

Mrs. Brisby then bit into the string that was causing the crow to hang upside down and the crow hit the ground by its back as he continued to laugh. "You should've seen yourselves!" The crow continued to laugh as he flew up and landed on the log. "You two were scared stiff! A rabbit! I knew it all along!"

At this point, Chris and Mrs. Brisby were not finding this amusing anymore for as they both knew the crow was the one that was freaking out. "Will you hush up?" Mrs. Brisby said.

"Admit it! You were both scared." The crow said as he continued to laugh.

"For Pete's sake," Chris said as he and Mrs. Brisby were trying to cut more of the red string. "Will you shut up and stand still so we can get you out of this?"

"If I had actually been near a cat, I'd be sneezing my brains out. See, I'm allergic to caaaaa… I'm allergic to… mfffff."

Chris and Mrs. Brisby were staring at the crow confused as to what was going on for they could see that the crow was now sneezing. As the crow was trying to say he was allergic to cats, Chris then noticed a gray looking paw on the log and it looked like… a cat's. Chris then gasped when he saw Dragon's face and he had his eyes locked on the crow. When the crow tried one last time to say he was allergic to cats he all the sudden sneezed in Dragon's face, which caused Dragon to now have the crow's saliva on him.

The crow looked at Dragon and smiled nervously. "Excuse me, pardon me."

Dragon all the sudden roared in the crow's face and Chris swore to god it sounded like an actual dragon's roar. The crow screamed in fear and tried to fly away while Chris and Mrs. Brisby hid behind a branch but Dragon grabbed hold of the string that was attached to the crow but before Dragon could do anything, Chris jumped towards the sting and since it was being pulled by Dragon at a tight force, Chris managed to cut through it with his pocket knife and when he did, the crow flew away and the string that Chris cut through landed on Dragon's face.

Chris's heart started to pound wildly when he saw that Dragon was staring directly at him and Mrs. Brisby. If Chris was taller than Dragon at this moment he wouldn't have had a problem with him but since he was about the size of a mouse compared to Dragon's humongous size there was absolutely no way that he could easily pick him up and toss him away like he usually did. Chris's hands were starting to sweat and shake as he watched Dragon lick his chops and was slowly approaching them. Even though he was feeling nervous he wouldn't let Dragon get to him. If he could deal with Dragon in his normal size then he could see no reason why he couldn't do the same in a small size.

Chris brought his hands up near Dragon. "Nice kitty… nice pretty kitty…"

"Chris, what're you doing!?" Mrs. Brisby said.

"Here, Dragon," Chris whistled like he was trying to get a dog's attention and he tore off a stick that was attached to the log and he was trying to get the cat to pay attention to it as he moved it in random directions and to his relief, Dragon was eyeing it. "Go fetch, go fetch!" Chris threw the stick towards a random direction and he hoped that Dragon would go get it, however Dragon just looked to where the stick landed without going to get it. Chris gulped when Dragon looked back at them. "Damn it, why can't cats be like dogs sometimes?"

Dragon growled and Chris could tell that Dragon was now in full hunting mode. As if both knowing what they were thinking, they ran, but before they could get far, Mrs. Brisby grabbed hold of Timmy's medicine and then she and Chris doubled back, ducking under Dragon as he pounced and then he tore a branch in bits. Chris jumped to a nearby rock but Mrs. Brisby, on the other hand, tripped over a red string and when she did, she dropped the medicine. She went after the medicine and as she did, Chris saw that Dragon was staring at her.

Chris gasped and he cupped his hands near his mouth as Mrs. Brisby was trying to get the medicine from out of the pond. "Elizabeth, look out!"

Mrs. Brisby looked up in shock at Dragon and Dragon roared as he jumped off the log towards her but just in time, Mrs. Brisby jumped into the water and Dragon instead broke some of log making it smack into the water. Chris watched in shock as Mrs. Brisby was trying to swim away from Dragon and he knew that Dragon would eventually grab hold of her if he didn't do something. Chris jumped to another rock and he was close enough to Dragon that so much so he jumped onto him. "Sorry, Dragon."

Chris then cut Dragon a little bit on his back and Dragon yowled in pain and dark red blood started to spread on his back. Dragon growled at Chris when he saw him and Dragon tried to get Chris off him. Chris screamed as Dragon was trying to get a hold of him.

"Chris!" Mrs. Brisby shouted.

But then, to Chris's surprise, the crow was flying towards him and Dragon and the crow then started to pull on Dragon's tail. Dragon stopped trying to get Chris and he looked up at the crow as he snarled. The crow got a handful of Dragon's tail fur as he pulled too hard and after he did, Dragon tried to get him and as he did, Chris fell off him and screamed and he then plummeted into the rapid rivers created by Dragon. Chris popped up for a breather and when he did he realized that he didn't have his pocket knife and he searched around him desperately for it.

"The string," Chris looked up and he saw the crow flying towards him and Mrs. Brisby. "Quick, grab the string!"

Wasting no time, Chris and Mrs. Brisby grabbed hold of the string that was still attached to the crow before Dragon could snatch one of them. They all flew up into the branches but as bad luck would have it, the string got tangled in a branch and it caused Chris and Mrs. Brisby to knock loose. Mrs. Brisby managed to grab onto a branch but Chris didn't manage so. Chris screamed as he fell and he looked to see that Dragon had his mouth wide open and Chris could tell that it was going to be the end of it. But before he could plummet down into Dragon's mouth, he landed on something. Chris breathed in shock and when he looked to see who caught him he saw that it was the crow.

"Hang on tight," the crow said and Chris obeyed.

Chris looked to where he saw Mrs. Brisby and he saw Dragon chasing her up the tree and Dragon managed to break a lot of branches as he did so. Chris watched in fear as Mrs. Brisby scurried across a tree branch and she was close to falling into the water but she caught herself in time and she pulled herself up and when she did she looked down and she looked frightened of what she saw. When Chris saw what she was looking at he gasped when he saw a waterfall near a mill.

Chris then saw Dragon was approaching her very hungry and then he leaped at her as Mrs. Brisby looked back at him in fear and shock, but Mrs. Brisby jumped backwards and she fell down towards the waterfall. Dragon instead got a hold of the tree branch Mrs. Brisby was on and when he did, the tree branch snapped, sending Dragon down towards the waterfall as well and then, he and Mrs. Brisby were underwater.

* * *

**A/N- Chapter 6 everyone! Yes! Six down... more to go! XD**


	7. Flying Dreams

**Chapter 7**

**Flying Dreams**

"Elizabeth!" Chris shouted feeling scared.

He tightly gripped the crow's feathers as he didn't want to fall off him and he felt tense that there might not have been a chance Mrs. Brisby made it. If Dragon did kill her, Chris would never forgive himself and her children would have not only no father but no mother as well. It would break the children's hearts more and Chris could see them going through hard times if they lost their mother. They were still young and poor Timmy was too sick to even get out of bed without the medicine Mrs. Brisby had but she lost it in the water. The children still needed their mother.

As Chris searched towards the water desperately the blue stone started to glow the blue color once again and Chris's eyes widened. The crow noticed something strange and when he looked towards the glowing he gasped when he saw the stone and he looked mesmerized by it. Chris couldn't understand what was happening as this stone was acting strange again but to his surprise, the water down below him and the crow started to glow in a certain area and when Chris got a closer look at the area that was glowing he gasped when he saw Mrs. Brisby in the glowing area of the water. Without realizing it, Chris grabbed a hold of the stone and when he did he gasped again when he felt something powerful surge through him and he then started to glow blue as the stone was doing something out of the ordinary and the crow watched shocked as he didn't know what to do at this moment.

To make things even more shocking, Mrs. Brisby started to float out of the water and she looked like a spirit as she was enveloped in the blue glow. She was coughing as she was dripping in cold water but she looked frightened of what was happening as she saw she was floating and was glowing a blue color. Chris's teeth were gritted as he now had both hands on the stone and was grunting and as he did, the glowing on Mrs. Brisby sent her floating to a hole that was made in the cobblestones in a mill and the glowing made her land safely inside it. The glowing from the stone eventually evaporated from the stone and when it did, Chris gasped and breathed hard at what just happened and he let go of the stone. What just happened was getting him freaked out as he couldn't believe that some magic from this stone saved Mrs. Brisby.

However, his hands started to sting suddenly and he hissed. He looked at his hands and his eyes widened when he saw the palms of his hands. They looked as though they got sunburnt as they now had a pinkish color. Not only that he felt as though he lost a lot of energy as he now felt lightheaded. He placed the palm of his hand on his forehead (even though the palm of it was stinging badly) and breathed. He felt like closing his eyes and falling asleep. It did feel like a good idea as he just wanted to lie down and….

Chris shook his head and slapped himself so he wouldn't close his eyes. He couldn't sleep, he needed to get to Mrs. Brisby. He just had to.

He looked at the crow. "I need you to take me to my friend, can you do that?"

The crow looked lost in his thoughts as he was staring at the stone as though he was hypnotized and he had a goofy looking smile plastered on his beak. "You're wearing a sparkly…"

Chris furrowed his brow weirded out by the crow. "What?"

"You're wearing a sparkly…"

Chris sighed annoyed and he then snapped his stinging fingers in front of the crow's eyes a couple of times to get his attention. "Hey, stop staring at this necklace and listen to me."

"Huh?" The crow shook his head. "Oh, sorry, what did you say?"

"I said I need you to take me to my friend, can _you _do that?"

"Oh, yeah, just hang on tight and I'll get you to her in a jiffy."

The crow flapped his wings towards the hole in the mill where the glowing placed Mrs. Brisby in and when he got close enough to it he perched on the cobblestone of the entrance of it. He then lowered his body towards the ground and Chris slid off him and when he did he heard crying. He looked inside and he saw Mrs. Brisby crying on her red cape like it was tissue. Chris looked at her sadly.

A thought then came to Chris and he looked at the crow. "Hey, can you do me a favor?" He whispered.

Chris saw that the crow wasn't paying attention and he was staring at the stone once again. Chris scowled at the crow and snapped his fingers in front of his eyes once again and the crow blinked his eyes and shook his head. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I said will you do me a favor? And keep it down."

"Oh, right." The crow whispered. "What's the favor?"

"I need you to find something. The thing I need you to find is a white envelope. It contains some medicine that my friend needs for her son. You must find it she desperately needs it. You understand?" The crow was once again staring at the stone and Chris was getting frustrated with him. "You listening!?" Chris said as quietly as he could.

The crow jumped surprised. "Sorry, sorry. What did you say you needed me to find?"

"A white envelope!"

"A white envelope got it. Oh, but one more thing."

Chris sighed annoyed. "What?"

"Did I mention to you that sparkly is very shiny and glowy?"

"Will you move it!?"

"Right, right, sorry. I'm going to get the items, be back with them before you know it." The crow took off to get the items.

Chris rolled his eyes but shifted his focus back to Mrs. Brisby as she was continuing to cry. He went inside and there was junk everywhere to be seen from rope to fishing nets, and broken crates. Mrs. Brisby was sitting on one of those rope pulling machines sorts of type but it looked out of use.

Chris climbed up one of the broken crates and he then felt like he was on an agility course as he was jumping on objects and trying not to hurt himself as he was trying to get to Mrs. Brisby. Mrs. Brisby looked up when she was hearing noises and she gasped when she saw Chris. "Chris?"

Chris managed to jump on the rusty rope pulling machine that Mrs. Brisby was on and when he did he looked directly at Mrs. Brisby. "You alright?"

Mrs. Brisby got up and she hugged Chris tightly. "Oh, Chris… thank heavens you're alright!" She then started to sob on Chris's chest.

Chris hugged Mrs. Brisby back tightly. "Hey, it's alright, it's alright…"

"Chris… I lost Timmy's medicine… the medicine's gone…" Mrs. Brisby continued to cry on Chris soaking wet shirt.

It didn't matter if the shirt was wet or not. What mattered was that Mrs. Brisby was upset that she lost her son's medicine. That medicine was Timmy's only hope of getting better. He hoped that crow wasn't too awestruck by the stone to not forget what he needed to get.

All he could think about at the moment though was comforting Mrs. Brisby. With her being a widow and all she must've had a lot to go through. It was easy to tell and Chris could understand her feelings at this moment.

"Hey, Miss. Mouse," Chris looked up to see that the crow returned and the crow laughed a little. He thought that it was quick. "Don't worry, I'm okay." He then started to whistle and take a few steps as he had his wings behind his back and this made Chris furrow his brow at him annoyed. The crow then flew towards them and he laughed a little again as he then sat down next to them. "See? I'm alright." The crow gestured to himself.

"That's not the reason she's crying dimwit," Chris shouted. "Maybe if you haven't been focusing on the necklace here you would know the actual reason why she's crying!"

The crow looked at Chris surprised by his reaction and shouting. His beak hung open as he had no words to say to Chris.

"Chris, please don't get mad at him," Mrs. Brisby sobbed as she then looked at the crow and Chris looked at her sadly. "But Chris is right though… that's not the reason I'm crying. I lost Timmy's medicine." She then continued to cry in Chris's shirt.

The crow shook his head. "Aw, don't cry. I hate to see a woman cry… Hey! Was I great, or was I great? I saved his life!" The crow pointed at Chris and then laughed. "Oh, and did you see that cat out there? All dripping, and-"

Chris cleared his throat irritably towards the crow because he was trailing off and when the crow looked at him he saw that Chris was looking at him with a hard stare. Chris then indicated his head towards Mrs. Brisby and mouthed to the crow if he got the medicine. The crow looked at Mrs. Brisby and then he smiled sheepishly towards Chris and nodded, realizing that he was getting off-topic and needed to focus on the real problem here.

Mrs. Brisby looked up at Chris as she wiped the tears from her eyes with her cape. "We'll… go back to Mr. Ages tomorrow, and-"

"You weren't so bad yourself, the both of you," the crow said and then he smiled. "Hey, we make a pretty good team! Oh, and you dropped this back there." The crow extends the white envelope that Chris said he wanted him to find towards Mrs. Brisby and Mrs. Brisby looks to what the crow had trying to process it. "Your friend here wanted me to find this for you and nobody messes with ol' Jeremy, boy. Nobody!"

Mrs. Brisby eyes lit up when she saw the envelope and she smiled as she placed her hands on her cheeks. "That's it! Timmy's medicine!" Mrs. Brisby took the medicine from Jeremy's wing and hugged it tightly with happiness. "Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!"

Chris smiled at Mrs. Brisby. "Well, it's a good thing we won't be going back to Mr. Ages tomorrow."

"Oh, yeah, and before I forget," the crow said and then to Chris's surprise he pulled out his pocket knife that his old man gave to him on his tenth birthday. "When I found her envelope I saw this get stuck in the rocks of the water and I knew I couldn't lose it because this is yours after all."

"My… my pocket knife!" Chris smiled as he took the pocket knife from Jeremy and to his relief it was still in perfect condition.

This pocket knife was special to Chris and he couldn't even imagine losing something like this. It was too precious for him to lose. He was grateful that the crow saved his pocket knife that his dad gave to him as a birthday gift even though he didn't tell the crow to get it for him.

He looked at the crow as he put the blade part of it away and then he put the pocket knife back in his pants pocket. "Thank you! You don't know how much this means to me!"

The crow looked at Chris surprised. "R-Really? Oh… wow! Well, I saw it in the water and I said uh…" The crow smiled at the two as he placed his wings behind his back. "My name is Jeremy."

Mrs. Brisby smiled at Jeremy. "I'm Mrs. Brisby and this is Christopher Fitzgibbons."

"Call me Chris for short, though," Chris said.

Mrs. Brisby tapped Chris on the shoulder, which made him look at her. "We better go, Chris." She then looked back at the crow named Jeremy. "Thanks again! We have to go home now."

Chris and Mrs. Brisby then walked across some rope carefully until they were on a lobster trap and Jeremy flew over to them as he then landed near them and grabbed a hold of some rope as he stared at them. "Uh, where's home?"

"In the garden patch, by the stone," Mrs. Brisby said as she was testing some rope that went down the lobster trap.

"Well… do you like me?"

Mrs. Brisby looked at Jeremy. "Of course I like you." She then looked at Chris. "We can go down this."

Chris got on one side of the rope while Mrs. Brisby got on the other side of the rope as Jeremy then said to Chris: "Uh, how about you, Chris? Do you like me? You don't seem as though you do."

Chris sighed and he looked at Jeremy. "Look, it's not that I don't like you it's just that you can be a little annoying. But in all honesty, you're a pretty caring guy, I'll give you points for that."

It was true of course. Chris thought Jeremy saving his and Mrs. Brisby's lives was a huge risk. He didn't have to but he did so anyway. Jeremy didn't seem to be too bad but what he lacked was paying attention.

Chris is not one to yell a lot but if he had to it was only for good reasons. His reason for yelling at Jeremy a couple of times was because he wasn't listening like he was a child messing around. Chris may be nice but it doesn't mean he can't yell as well.

"See you around, Jeremy," Chris said as he and Mrs. Brisby got on the rope and let it descend them down inside the lobster trap.

Jeremy looked and leaned down into the lobster trap where Chris and Mrs. Brisby descended into. "So… you don't think I'm clumsy or anything?"

Jeremy all the sudden fell into the lobster trap and he yelped as he tried to steady himself on the rope Chris and Mrs. Brisby were descending on but the rope broke and the three crashed to the floor. Chris hissed in pain when he felt the palm of his hands slam to the ground. It felt like his skin was scraped off with a knife. He tried not to let Mrs. Brisby nor Jeremy see he was in pain and so he breathed through his nose.

As Chris was trying to ease the pain on his hands he heard Jeremy say: "Oh… sorry. Excuse me, pardon me."

Mrs. Brisby got up and Chris did as well only much more slowly as he was trying to hold in the pain he was feeling. "Oh. Well if you're going to feather a nest, you've got to learn how to treat a lady," Mrs. Brisby said.

"Right. When you're right you're right. And you're right." Jeremy then tried to get the old rope off him that was tangled on him. "None of the girls I meet want to get serious!"

"I doubt they'd survive," Chris said with his arms crossed.

Jeremy got most of the rope off him. "Huh? Maybe it's my approach." Jeremy's eyes then lit up with an idea as Chris and Mrs. Brisby were getting out of the lobster trap. He then looked at Chris. "Say! You seem like the kind of guy who could win over girls! You could teach me how to… you, know, how to-"

"Sorry, you're barking up the wrong tree. I'm not the type of guy to swoon the girls. But here's a tip: you want to win a girl over you might want to try and behave yourself."

Chris and Mrs. Brisby got out of the lobster trap through a big hole and started to walk towards the hole through the cobblestone wall they all went through. It was night time already and the stars were out and about shining. The breeze felt nice as it blew in their direction and walking in the nice breeze is what Chris needed.

"I'm not that bad," Jeremy said as he tried to get out of the lobster trap. "I just need a few pointers to polish my style." He tried to pose but there was a rope tangled around his foot and because of that he tripped and fell flat on his face.

Chris and Mrs. Brisby looked at Jeremy. "Jeremy, we have got to get home," Mrs. Brisby said.

Jeremy tried to get the rope off his foot and he was struggling while doing so while following the two out the mill. "Well let me… Let me fly you two home! We can talk on the way!"

Chris hummed at the idea. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea… could save us some time."

"I prefer if we didn't," Mrs. Brisby said. "I'm afraid of heights."

Chris looked at Mrs. Brisby surprised. "Really? I didn't know mice could be afraid of heights."

Mrs. Brisby looked embarrassed but she nodded. "It's strange but it's true."

"Okay, then we'll walk," Jeremy said as he was trying to shake the same rope off his foot.

"Bye, now."

"Yeah, see ya," Chris said.

Chris and Mrs. Brisby descended the cobblestones until they landed on lily pads and they walked and jumped across them smoothly like a feather until they got onto a rock and started to walk back to Mrs. Brisby's home. As they were walking they heard splashing and they both knew that Jeremy was still following them but they also knew there was no point in stopping Jeremy in walking with them for he seemed to be serious about walking and talking with them. The guy was awkward but he did seem like he liked to talk a lot.

"I think I got real potential, I mean girls go for the athletic type, don't they?" Jeremy said.

"Jeremy, you're stepping on my tail," Mrs. Brisby said.

"Oh! Oh, yeah! Excuse me, pardon me… Say, Chris! Is there any chance I could have your sparkly? It might help me win a girl over!"

"You got money?" Chris said.

Jeremy looked at Chris confused. "I don't even know what money is."

"Then my answer is no."

Even though Chris would've gladly have given it away there was something about this necklace that didn't make any sense. In the end, he had to figure out the necklace's secret.

* * *

The walk back to Mrs. Brisby's home wasn't too bad and when they got close enough to Mrs. Brisby's house, Jeremy said his goodbyes to them. He also said that if they needed him just mention his name to any crow they come across in the woods and they'll find him. Chris and Mrs. Brisby said they would remember that before Jeremy left to go home.

As Chris and Mrs. Brisby got close to the house they heard what sounded like yelping from Auntie Shrew and when they did they quickly got to the house and they then heard giggling but they mostly heard Martin laughing.

"Oh!" They heard the shrew shouting as they got inside and when they did they saw her laying on top of the staircase and she was staring at Martin furiously. "You impertinent little-"

"Martin," Mrs. Brisby shouted towards Martin and she then looked at the shrew as she got up and ascended the steps with her cane with that grouchy look. "Auntie Shrew, what's going on!?"

"Indeed," the shrew shouted towards Mrs. Brisby but when she saw Chris her eyes widened in surprise but then she furrowed her brow again at him. "You again? I would've thought that you would've been gone by now. Shouldn't you be back on that farm of yours, Charlie?" She said as she poked him in the chest with her cane.

Chris was starting to find Auntie Shrew to be quite ruder than the last time they talked. Chris scowled as he rubbed his chest. "My name's Christopher and the farm is technically not mine. I don't even live there."

"Your last name is Fitzgibbons though, which would mean that you live on that farm."

"Not really, I just visit my relatives there. I live in the city."

Auntie Shrew rolled her eyes with disgust. "Whatever, you humans cause enough troubles these days and I hope _you_-" she then poked Chris in the chest with her cane again this time a little rougher, "Christopher Fitzgibbons don't give any of us animals more trouble than there already is. Now if you'll excuse me." The shrew shoved Chris aside.

"Please," Mrs. Brisby said indicating with her hand downstairs towards the shrew. "Come back inside…"

The shrew looked at Mrs. Brisby. "Not for a king's ransom! I have just one thing to say." She then used her cane to point at Martin. "That child is a brat!"

"Take it easy, will ya?" Chris said as he crossed his arms. "He's just a kid. You don't have to have an ugly attitude about it."

Chris saw in the corner of his eye that Martin was looking at him surprised. However, he smiled at him gratefully. Chris would've smiled at him back in return but he couldn't bring himself to break eye contact with the shrew as he continued to scowl at her.

The shrew looked at Chris and she gritted her teeth in anger. "Now you listen here-"

"Auntie Shrew," Mrs. Brisby said as she got in front of Auntie Shrew before things got serious. "Please calm down."

"Well, I suggest you tell your friend here to watch what he says." Chris's eyes widened in shock but still in anger. "Not everything he says will get him anywhere."

Chris sighed annoyed and walked down the stairs so he wouldn't have to be near that old grouch and when he got downstairs he sat down where his sleeping area was as he had one leg out and one leg bent. He looked at his hands as he heard Mrs. Brisby apologizing to the shrew and how she would talk to Martin and then he heard the shrew say that the frost was off the ground and that Moving Day is at hand. Chris looked at the white shirt he had and while the shrew said to Mrs. Brisby to prepare her very odd family, he ripped some cloth off the shirt and started to make bandages out of them on his hands as he wrapped the cloth around them like bandages. Chris then heard the shrew say good day to Mrs. Brisby as he continued to mend his burnt palms. He then thought he heard the shrew mumble about rats and such but he paid no attention to it as he was finishing up patching his burnt palms.

The white shirt was nothing too special and was an old piece of clothing so it didn't bother him that he tore it apart. He did notice the children watching him as he was mending his palms but he tried not to look at them as he did it. When he looked up at them he saw that they were looking at him with concern. He didn't know what to say as they stared at him.

"Well, children," Mrs. Brisby said with disappointment. "Now you've done it."

Teresa looked at her mother as she was sitting on a thimble with Martin sitting against it with his arms crossed angrily. "It was Martin."

Chris watched as Mrs. Brisby was getting everything she needed to make the broth for Timmy. "The shrew means well. She only wants to help."

Mrs. Brisby then poured some hot water into a bowl from her makeshift tea kettle and after she did she poured the medicine into it. Chris could tell she looked extremely tired but even though she did there was some determination in them to give Timmy the medicine. Even though she was a widow Chris could tell she was strong and only a strong widow is capable enough to put up with these difficult tasks. He admired her for that.

When she was done with making the broth she took that and a spoon with her to Timmy's room and as she did, Martin followed her with a guilty look on his face and he then slid his hand through his hair as Mrs. Brisby opened Timmy's clothed-door to his room. "Gosh, I'm sorry, mom."

Chris sighed and stood up. "Hey, kid." Martin looked at Chris confused. "Can you come here for a sec?" Martin walked towards Chris and when he did, Chris got on his knee and then placed his hands on his shoulders. "Listen, I can understand that the shrew can be…" Chris thought of what to say that wouldn't involve curse words. "Hard to handle but your mother does bring a good point. You should at least try to give the shrew some respect and then maybe she'll give you some respect."

Martin looked down sadly but he then looked back at Chris. "It's hard to do that… she doesn't like you though. It's kind of one of the reasons why I yelled at her. I even like having you around more than her."

Chris smiled weakly at Martin. "That's very nice of you, kid. But you should take my word for it. When I was your age I was exactly like you, being young and wild but as I grew older I started to understand things better. Not everyone is nice and they have their reasons for it. Even though the shrew may not like me and I may not like her a little it doesn't mean that I don't show her respect and you should give her some respect as I do."

Martin looked surprised with Chris. "You have respect for Auntie Shrew?"

Chris was telling the truth and it was a lesson his parents taught him and he would never forget that lesson. He nodded at Martin. "I do and if I didn't I wouldn't have a heart. The only time you don't give anyone any respect is if they harm you or bully you. You understand?"

Martin thought about this as he rubbed his head. After a while of thinking though he then nodded his head. "Yeah… thanks, Chris."

"No problem." Chris then looked to see that the girls were staring at them. Chris stood up as he placed his hands on his sides. "You kids should probably go be with your mother and brother, they would probably like that."

The kids nodded and they walked towards Martin's room and when they did they entered to go be with their mother and brother. Chris wanted to leave them be but something told him he should have a look to see if everything was alright. He breathed then took slow steps towards Timmy's room. He grabbed the cloth and he hesitated to open it but he assured himself in his head it was only to check on them. He repeated it a couple more times until he felt calm.

He opened it quietly and looked inside. He saw the three kids watch as Mrs. Brisby fed Timmy the medicine and when Chris looked at Timmy his heart sank. Timmy looked weak and he looked as though he hadn't eaten anything for a long time for he could his body was very thin. He could hear Timmy's raspy breaths and his eyes looked frail.

Looking at Timmy reminded Chris of his mother… With no hair, thin, and weak, she had a low chance of surviving because of cancer. He remembered holding her warm hand on the hospital bed as she said her final words to him. It killed him as much as it killed him when his old man died and when he saw the color drain from his mother's face and heard the heart monitor on the machine beep and then go flat… she never woke up again.

"Is Timmy gonna die?" Cynthia asked.

It broke Chris's heart when a child asked that question.

"No, sweetheart," Mrs. Brisby assured her daughter. "He's just very sick."

"What's the matter with him, Mother?" Teresa asked worried as Timmy was now asleep.

"Mr. Ages called it… pneumonia…"

"Pneumonia…"

"When will he get better?" Cynthia asked.

"Soon… I hope," Mrs. Brisby said.

Hot tears were streaming down his face as he watched what was happening in front of him. He felt so bad for them and this reminded him too much of two of the worst days of his life. He could still perfectly remember those days and he wished he didn't.

He quietly closed the clothed-door and he looked down sadly as he walked away and as he did he wiped away the tears from his eyes with his arm. He walked upstairs and then went outside to get some fresh air.

* * *

**A/N- Well, here it is guys! Chapter 7. I named this chapter after the song Flying Dreams from the movie because I think it's both great and a beautiful song and I can just see it being played as Chris watches the Brisby's in Timmy's room. That scene was very sad and I still found it sad as I wrote that scene with Chris in it. **

**However, the next chapter will be out soon, so later.**


	8. Moving Day

**Chapter 8**

**Moving Day**

The chilly air blew against his brown hair and face as he sat all by himself on a large stone that was near the Brisby's house. It looked like winter was pretty much over but even though it looked like it did it was still a little chilly. The weather wasn't bothering Chris though.

Chris had his flashlight out and he was testing it to see if it still worked after the whole incident with Dragon. It was waterproof but he still wanted to make sure it worked. Luckily it still worked and he put it back in his pocket for safekeeping.

He sighed and then looked at the time on his watch that was on his wrist. 8:15 it read. It wasn't too late for him and he decided to stay out here a little longer. Besides, it wasn't like he had something to do anyway, although he wished he could be taking photos at this moment. Beautiful photos that enraptured one's eye for safe keepings like a painting. Tonight would've been a perfect night to take photos. Chris looked up to the sky and in the very sky, there were stars as beautiful as diamonds.

These stars made a weak smile start to show on Chris's face. He could see a few constellations across the sky if he looked very closely, like the Gemini. When he was a kid he wanted to learn a lot about these constellations and it was all because of his mother. She would always tell him stories about stars and constellations and every day he learned something new about stars and constellations. Because of his love for stars and constellations, he got himself a telescope for Christmas from his parents and it was better than a bicycle.

"Chris?"

Chris got out of his thoughts when he saw Mrs. Brisby approaching him. She looked extremely tired but none other the less she looked to be in good condition. However, she still had that worried look in her eyes for her son, Timmy.

When Chris looked into Timmy's eyes he could see some innocence in them. He couldn't imagine how much that kid has gone through to deserve all this. He felt bad for the kid in the condition he was in, but he hoped the kid would get better soon.

"Hi," Chris said as he didn't move from his spot on the stone.

"What're you doing out here?" Mrs. Brisby asked as she stood next to Chris.

Chris sighed and looked back up at the stars. "Just... wanted to get some fresh air..." Although it was mostly a lie it was partly true. "How's Timmy doing?"

Mrs. Brisby sighed as her ears lowered on her head. "Still doesn't feel good but hopefully he'll get better now I gave him the medicine Mr. Ages gave to me." Chris noticed Mrs. Brisby looking at the stars and there was some awe in them. "The stars are very beautiful tonight, it's been a long time since I looked at them."

Chris smiled at Mrs. Brisby. "Wanna join me?"

Mrs. Brisby looked at Chris as she rubbed her arm. "Are you sure? I don't want to feel like I'm disturbing you-"

"It's not a problem at all, there's nothing wrong with a mouse looking at the stars with a human, right?"

Mrs. Brisby looked surprised with what Chris said and Chris continued to smile at her. She then smiled in return and without saying a word she sat down next to Chris and together they looked at the stars. If anyone saw a human and a mouse looking at the stars together they'd probably think that it was strange. Chris, however, didn't think this was strange. He thought it was nice.

"I remember Jonathon and I used to look at the stars at night," Mrs. Brisby said.

Chris looked at Mrs. Brisby with his head tilted. "Your husband?"

Mrs. Brisby nodded. "Every time we looked at them it always seemed like they got more beautiful."

Chris looked back at the stars and nodded. "That's how I always felt whenever I looked at the stars. My mom once told me that whenever someone must go they always become a part of the sky. I sometimes wonder if my parents are somewhere up there, watching everything unfold for me…"

Mrs. Brisby looked at Chris shocked but then she looked at him sadly and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry about them…"

Chris sighed but looked at Mrs. Brisby. "Thank you…"

Mrs. Brisby looked like she was thinking about something as her eyes were lowered and then she looked back at Chris. "When Dragon attacked… you shouted my first name before he could even grab me."

Chris's eyes widened. He tried to recall when he did and he realized he shouted her first name twice a while ago. The first time was when Dragon was trying to grab her when she was trying to get Timmy's medicine and the other time was when she fell into the water with Dragon. He even kind of wanted to know if Dragon survived the fall or not. He didn't even realize he was shouting Mrs. Brisby's name until she mentioned it to him. He felt embarrassed. Although, he was panicking around that time so he had no reason to feel embarrassed. He wasn't sure if calling Mrs. Brisby by her first name was such a good idea, like calling parents by their first names.

"Um… yeah, sorry," Chris said rubbing his neck. "I was worried about you and I didn't realize-"

"It's okay," Mrs. Brisby said. "I understand. You can call me Elizabeth if you want to."

Chris was surprised by what Mrs. Brisby said. "R-Really?"

"Of course." Mrs. Brisby then looked down and when she did she gasped at something. Chris realized what she was looking at and he tried to hide them but it was too late. "Chris, what happened to your hands?"

Chris cussed inside his head. He didn't want Mrs. Brisby to worry about his hands but seeing as though she saw his hands he knew he couldn't hide it. He knew he had to explain everything to her. He started to tell her what happened after she fell into the water to how he was worried she wouldn't make it, to how the pendant on the necklace started to glow while he was on Jeremy and it started to save her, to how his hands were stinging him like he touched fire after he held the pendant.

As soon as he finished, Mrs. Brisby thought about this. She opened her mouth and then she closed it. Chris didn't blame her. This stone had done a lot of crazy things recently. Chris did wonder something though. If that stone could make him feel better this morning after yesterday then why didn't it instantly heal his stinging hands? This pendant was just confusing him.

"Well… you could've asked me if I had anything to wrap your hands in," Mrs. Brisby said.

"I didn't want you to worry about it," Chris said. "Besides, you and the shrew were talking and I didn't want to interrupt your conversation with her any further."

Mrs. Brisby sighed. "I know she wasn't being friendly towards you but she does have trust issues. I'm sure she'll come around eventually."

"Yeah… I hope so."

Mrs. Brisby smiled and she then stood up. "Well, it's getting late, I should probably get inside." She started to walk away but before she did she looked back at Chris. "Are you coming?"

Chris looked at his watch and Mrs. Brisby was pretty much right. He looked back up at Mrs. Brisby and nodded. "Yeah, I'm coming."

He then got off the ground and he and Mrs. Brisby started to walk back to the house and while they did, Mrs. Brisby looked back at Chris. "Thank you by the way… for saving me. Even though it's still shocking that pendant did something unnatural again, I owe you one."

Chris looked surprised by what Mrs. Brisby said but he then smiled weakly. "No problem."

They then continued to walk back to the house in silence as the crickets chirped and the wind continued to blow. Tomorrow would be a new day for them.

* * *

Night came already and there was still nothing about Chris. Beth was worried sick for him, hoping he wasn't hurt or worse. Neither she nor Paul could guess where he could be by now but she hoped he'd return safe and sound.

Beth was standing in front of the bathroom mirror in her robe brushing her blond hair. It was a stressful day for her and Paul but they were trying not to worry too much for they had to get a lot of work done today. They still haven't told Billy that Chris was missing but as long as if they didn't tell him, Billy wouldn't worry. However, Billy did wonder what happened to Chris and they had to come up with the best excuse they could. It wasn't easy but somehow they managed to persuade him.

After she brushed her hair, Beth turned off the bathroom light and made her way back to her room where her husband was, but before she did, she quietly went to Billy's room and opened his door without it making a creak. When she opened it she looked in to see that Billy was fast asleep. She smiled weakly and then she closed the door quietly and made her way to her bedroom. When she got to her bedroom she saw Paul in his casual sleepwear and he was sitting on their bed thinking as he was rubbing his temples with two of his fingers.

She then walked in and she placed her hairbrush on her bedside table. "You think Chris is alright?"

Paul looked up at Beth as he sighed. "I… I don't know Beth…"

Beth sat down next to Paul when she got to Paul's side of the bed and as she did she placed her hand on Paul's hand and caressed it. "I'm sure the police will find Chris soon…"

Paul then held Beth's hand. "Hopefully they will." Paul then pecked Beth on the lips. "I'm going to bed. I have to plow the fields tomorrow."

Beth nodded and stood up and as she did, Paul took off his slippers and slipped his feet and legs under the covers and then turned out his lamp on his bedside table. Beth was about to close the blinds to their window but then she remembered that she needed to tell her husband something and it was something odd that happened today. It also kind of disturbed her as well. She looked at her husband and he was about to fall asleep.

"Dear, a man came by today, from NIMH," Beth said.

"NIMH?" Paul said sleepily.

"Yes, you know! The National Institute of Mental Health. He was asking if we had noticed… anything strange… about the rats on the farm." Beth then closed the blinds as she remembered the conversation she had with the man that caught her off guard. "Well, I said, 'No, nothing unusual'."

Paul then turned over onto his side. "Beth, I have to get up early."

Beth was then rubbing her arms like she was cold only she wasn't. "Oh, it gave me goosebumps to hear him carry on like that! Like the rats might have some horrible disease!"

The thought of the rats that were on farm property having some sort of disease made Beth worry that one of them might get something from the rats. She had hoped that Dragon might've gotten rid of some of them but strangely enough, he hasn't caught anything. She has noticed though that Dragon was sleeping a lot and it was mostly why Dragon wasn't doing a very good job at catching those rats.

Speaking of Dragon, she saw him come back to the farm and he was soaking wet. She also saw a little scratch on his back and it was hard to tell at first but when she got a closer look at it she saw the small cut on his back. She didn't know what happened out in the forest but whatever happened Dragon at least came back alive.

"Night, Beth," Paul said sleepily.

"I told him you'd call him back," Beth said before Paul could fall asleep.

Paul yawned. "Uh-huh." He was then asleep.

Beth sighed and decided to let her husband get some sleep. She then went to her side of the bed and sat down. She looked towards the window with the closed blinds and she prayed to God that Chris would come back safely.

* * *

Morning came and Chris started to hear something. Chris grumbled as he was trying to sleep and he even used his hands to cover his ears as he was tossing and turning but he couldn't block the noise. He cursed and just wanted some sleep but it was as if the noise didn't want him to have some good sleep.

Chris woke up very tired with some irritation and he had bags under his eyes. He sat up and slid his hand through his messy hair and cussed more as he could feel a headache forming. He then rubbed his eyes and after he did he slowly started to put his shoes on and then his jean jacket. He didn't want to get up this early but from the noise, he was hearing it was obvious he couldn't go back to sleep.

However, as he listened carefully to the sound he thought it sounded like an engine starting. He cocked his head in confusion and stood up and listened more. This engine was sounded like it was trying to start up and he wondered if it was coming from the farm. His Uncle did have a lot of things at the farm.

He then heard footsteps and he turned around and saw Mrs. Brisby coming out of her room in her red cape looking confused but worried at the same time. "You hear it too, don't you?" Chris said.

Mrs. Brisby nodded. "I need to go have a look."

"I'll come with you."

Mrs. Brisby nodded again and together, she and Chris made their way outside as the sound of an engine was trying to work. It was very cloudy outside but there was a little bit of sunshine. They hurried to see what was going and to see where the noise was coming from they went on top of the stone they were on yesterday to have a better view. Chris placed the side of his hand near his forehead and could see the farm. He could see and hear that the sound was coming from his Uncle's tractor.

He noticed that Mrs. Brisby looked pretty frightened as she was staring towards the farm and he was about to ask her what was wrong until a voice was heard. "What did I tell you? Moving Day!" Chris turned around to see the shrew-and her usual grouchy self-walking towards Mrs. Brisby with her makeshift cane.

Mrs. Brisby looked at the shrew shocked. "It can't be!"

The shrew stopped near Mrs. Brisby. "It certainly can!" The shrew slammed her cane on the ground to confirm what she's saying is true. "I don't suppose you've packed!"

Chris looked between Mrs. Brisby and the shrew confused. "Okay, would someone mind explaining to me what Moving Day is!?"

Mrs. Brisby and the shrew looked at Chris and Mrs. Brisby was about to answer but the shrew beat her to it. "Moving Day is when the animals that live near the farm have to leave to go back to their summer homes and it's because your Uncle is doing plowing! I'm surprised you haven't realized that by now! That plow destroys homes and anything else it comes across!"

Chris's eyes widened. _So that's Moving Day…_

Mrs. Brisby looked even more scared. "What about Timmy? The chill in the air could kill him!"

"Well child, that tractor _surely _will," The shrew said. "For the last time, get your children out of here, before it's too late!"

The engine was then heard again and this time it was sprung to life and it roared. The three of them looked to the farm and when they did they were shocked. Chris could see smoke coming out of the tractor and the tractor started to move towards them.

It was already too late.

The shrew freaked out and she ran and Chris didn't expect she could move that fast. "Run! Run for your lives, run! It's Moving Day!"

Chris looked at Mrs. Brisby and she was looking at him scared as the shrew continued to shout and warn the animals wherever she ran like she was Paul Revere shouting and warning the Patriots that the British were coming. Chris looked to the tractor and thought about something. He knew it was going to be risky but he knew that if he didn't do something fast, his uncle was likely going to kill Timmy and he couldn't let little Timmy get killed. He had to stop that tractor.

"Get anyone you can out of the house," Chris said.

Mrs. Brisby looked at Chris worried but confused at the same time. "But… but what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to try and stop my Uncle's tractor, but you need to get your kids out of that house fast, now go!" Mrs. Brisby didn't move as she looked at Chris shocked. "Go!"

Mrs. Brisby ran on her fours down the stone and to her house and as she did, Chris ran down the stone and he could hear and feel animals warning one another any way they could. He ran as fast as he could towards the plow and as he did he ran by animals that were escaping for their lives and saw birds flying out of the tall grasses flying away as fast as they could as their feathers floated to the ground gracefully. Chris kept his focus on the tractor and had to hurry otherwise he'd be too late.

* * *

She woke up Teresa, Martin, and Cynthia and she urged them to get out of bed. They didn't have time to grab anything and when all three of her children were up they scurried out of the house. Mrs. Brisby couldn't take Timmy out into open. Otherwise, the cold would likely kill him. Mrs. Brisby held Teresa's hand, Teresa held Martin's hand, and Martin held Cynthia's hand and they scurried as far as they could in a line like little ducklings following their mother.

"Brisby," shouted the shrew's voice and she ran out of the tall grass towards her and as she did, Mrs. Brisby and her children stopped in their tracks as the shrew stopped near them and she was breathing hard but worried. "Go get… Timothy!"

"Please," Mrs. Brisby begged. "Take the children out of here!"

Cynthia tugged at Mrs. Brisby's cape. "Mommy, we can't leave Timmy!"

"Where's Chris?" Martin said. "We can't leave him either!"

Mrs. Brisby looked at her children. "Children, go with Auntie Shrew." She then lightly pushed Cynthia towards the shrew and she took Cynthia.

Mrs. Brisby then looked to where the plow was and saw it was halfway to their winter home. It was huge and dangerous and she couldn't let Chris do this alone. He was by far a very good friend and she couldn't lose her friend or her son like she lost her husband. Whether anyone liked it or not she had to help Chris, no matter what.

"I've got to go help, Chris!" Mrs. Brisby then dashed as fast as she could to where Chris was headed.

"Wait," the shrew shouted towards Mrs. Brisby. "You're out of your mind! Brisby, come back!"

Mrs. Brisby didn't listen and hurried to help not only Chris but to save her son as well.

* * *

"Uncle Paul," Chris shouted as he ran towards the plow. "Uncle Paul, stop the tractor! Stop the tractor!"

It was no use though. His voice was audible to his Uncle because of the plow. He had to try a different tactic.

Chris then saw a chain dangling on the plow and without wasting a moment of breath, Chris ran faster, and then with a leap, he grabbed hold of the chain. Chris yelped when he almost got blown off the chain but he managed to hold on for dear life and he then began to ascend the chain. He then managed to get on top of the tractor and when he did he jumped onto another part of the tractor but when he did he almost fell but he luckily got a hold of a string. He looked down but regretted it as he could see churning blades that would've turned him into processed meat if he hadn't of grabbed the string in time and he forgot how to breathe as he was staring down in a shocking state.

"Chris!" Chris shook his head and looked up and when he did he saw Mrs. Brisby and she jumped over the ledge and landed on the other side of the tractor to where Chris was trying to get to. Chris yelped when he felt a big jolt but he held on tightly. Mrs. Brisby looked down at Chris. "Chris, give me your hand!"

Chris reached his hand out to Mrs. Brisby and when he did Mrs. Brisby managed to grab his hand and then Chris used his other hand to let go of the string and he used it for Mrs. Brisby to also grab hold of and just in time she grabbed it. She then pulled Chris up the best she could back onto the tractor and when she did, Chris held on and they panted.

Chris looked up at Mrs. Brisby. "What're you doing here!? You shouldn't be here!"

Mrs. Brisby looked at Chris. "I'm here to help!"

Dirt was flying everywhere as the plow was rocking them back and forth. Chris knew this wasn't a good time to argue but he grunted. He looked up ahead with a determined look and he steadily got up and then ran to where he needed to go and it was the only way to stop the tractor and Mrs. Brisby followed.

"What do we do!?" Mrs. Brisby asked in desperation.

"We need to make the fuel in this tractor leak and the only way to do that is if we pull the fuel line that connects to the fuel container," Holden shouted his answer. "We have to be careful though! I know where it is, it's inside the machine!"

As they tried to hurry they managed to get inside the machine as the shaking grew stronger. Chris looked around him to try to find the fuel container and they had to hurry or Timmy was going to get crushed with the Brisby's home. Chris then saw the fuel container and he pointed. "There!" They ran closer to the fuel tank and when they did they jumped onto it and they managed to keep their balance in place. Chris grabbed hold of the fuel line and landed his feet against a ledge below him and looked up at Mrs. Brisby. "Help me pull!"

Mrs. Brisby nodded and she grabbed hold of the fuel line as her feet planted on the ledge below them and together they pulled. They pulled the hardest they could as the tractor was getting close to the Brisby's home. Chris couldn't let poor little Timmy leave his mother and siblings, he just couldn't. The image of Timmy came to his mind… that sick and weak little kid that had a life ahead of him…

Chris gripped the fuel line the hardest he could and he wouldn't let a child die today. He pulled with incredible force and as he did. The line was coming loose and then with enough strength from the both of them the fuel line was pulled loose and fuel began to spray out towards them and when it did they fell alongside the tractor and screamed.

Things seemed to have gone by slowly but even as it did, Chris reached out towards Mrs. Brisby and grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him and then he hugged her in hopes of her not getting hurt and as he did, the pendant on the necklace began to glow that radiant blue and it began to surround them as they both held onto each other. They then collided onto something that was like a slide and then they crashed to the ground as they still held onto each other. Rubble and little bits of rocks then fell on top of them as the blue glow still surrounded them.

The tractor ground to a halt near the Brisby's home and the Brisby's home laid in the shadow of the tractor, unharmed.

Timmy was unharmed as well.

* * *

**A/N- Hey, guys! I'm so sorry for the long wait, but I'm back with another chapter! I've been so busy lately that I haven't had the time to work on this and I just didn't feel like working on it for some reason but I finally have this chapter down! A lot of you have been probably waiting for this chapter for a long time now but you all now have chapter 8. It might be a while before I can update on this and the reason being is because I'm going to be making some corrections and maybe some small changes to not only this story but another story I'm working on. I promise though I will have another chapter on this out soon and until then have a nice day.**


	9. Five Days

**Chapter 9**

**Five Days**

* * *

Their eyes were closed as they waited for the rubble and bits of rocks to collide onto them but nothing seemed to have happened. They were still hugging each other in the darkness as if they were afraid to be stuck in it like they were in a horror movie. Mrs. Brisby was shaking in fear as her heart pounded against Chris's chest as if it was trying to burst out of her while Chris held her tightly trying to stay calm, even though he was frightened himself as well.

The two were close to death and the thought of that didn't satisfy nor comfort Chris at all. Already, when he was only three days away from New York City in Virginia he was this close of dying by his Uncle's plow. His body could've been crushed while blood would've splattered anywhere near or on the tractor like paint and the same thing could've happened to Mrs. Brisby. If she ever got hurt or killed, Chris wouldn't have forgiven himself. He was glad though that she was alright.

At the sound of something starting up again, Chris and Mrs. Brisby opened their eyes. They looked up and to their surprise, they saw that the rubble and bits of rocks were above them like they were part of a ceiling. Chris then looked at the pendant on his necklace confused. _This thing is so confusing…_

Chris and Mrs. Brisby then started to make their way out of the piles of rubble and bits of rocks and as they did, light streamed down through the opening and they were then out into the open as they pushed off the final of the rubble and bits of rocks and when they did, the smell of fuel could be smelt. Chris then looked behind him and he saw his Uncle's plow had stopped and he also saw that his Uncle was trying to start it up again. He then realized that he and Mrs. Brisby stopped the plow from crushing the Brisby's home which meant that not only was the house safe but little Timmy was as well. Chris was relieved that Timmy was going to be alright.

"Brisby!" Chris and Mrs. Brisby turned around to see the shrew running towards them with worry in her eyes. She then got to Mrs. Brisby and helped her up out of the rubble and bits of rocks. "Come on, come along."

The shrew then led Mrs. Brisby away from the tractor and as she did, Chris quickly got up from the rubble and bits of rocks and ran after them. The three of them then made it into the safety of the tall grass as Chris heard his Uncle still try to start up the tractor. Even though Chris wanted to run up to his Uncle he couldn't let him see him like this. He didn't even know what his Uncle would do if he found him so short but he didn't want to find out.

Chris looked to see if his Uncle saw them but to their luck, he didn't and was only focusing on the fuel line that was now cut and he was mumbling to himself. He thought that at least his Uncle didn't find out that it was him and Mrs. Brisby that cut the fuel line. Plus he didn't want to pay for any damages that he and Mrs. Brisby caused on his Uncle's plow because that thing cost tons of money.

He then looked away and looked at Mrs. Brisby and the shrew and they were trying to collect themselves as he was. It was a scary situation for the three of them and even though they weren't seen it was too close of a call and Chris could see that Mrs. Brisby still looked scared. He walked over to her and then hugged her to try and calm her down and as soon as he did, Mrs. Brisby seemed to have stopped shaking as he was doing the best that he could to comfort her. She was now relaxing as he caressed her back. He couldn't blame her for being scared.

"He'll come back tomorrow," Mrs. Brisby said with fear in her voice. "I wish Jonathon were here…"

Chris felt guilty for his Uncle's plow almost killing her son and if he'd known about it sooner he would've done something about it. However, if he never had known Mrs. Brisby and her children he wouldn't have known that his Uncle's plow… He shook that thought away, desperately not wanting to picture the gruesome scene in his head. He may not have been Mrs. Brisby's husband but he wanted to comfort her the best that he could. Chris could see that Mrs. Brisby was not only frightened of what just happened and for her children but she was also tired and stressed.

_Why did this have to happen to her? _Chris thought. _What did she ever do to deserve this?_

"Well, he's not," the shrew pointed out as she looked at Mrs. Brisby with her brow furrowed. "Stupid!"

At that, Chris looked at the shrew angrily. He stopped hugging Mrs. Brisby and he got up to her closely. "Who the hell do you think you are of calling her stupid? Can't you see that she's stressed? You shouldn't have said what you just said."

"Chris, please," Mrs. Brisby said.

The shrew looked directly at Chris about as angry as him. "Says the nephew of that farmer who has that monstrosity! You, humans, are all the same, destroying anything your hands can reach and you take it away from all the animals that live out in the wild ever since you all evolved! You are all disgusting in every possible way! If you weren't small like you are now I can guarantee that you would've done what that Uncle of yours does every year!"

"Auntie Shrew!"

Chris bared his teeth angrily towards the shrew and he had about had it with her. "You think we're all the same?! Not all of us are! We're all different! Not all humans destroy things for granted! Some of us even care for wildlife! Even I do! I'm not even a farmer like my Uncle is and I don't even live on that farm like I said yesterday! I'm a photographer that lives in the city!"

"Chris, Auntie Shrew." Mrs. Brisby got in between the two. "Stop arguing, please. We need to focus on helping my son. It's more important than arguing right now."

Chris and Auntie Shrew stopped glaring at each other and looked at Mrs. Brisby. Chris sighed and knew that Mrs. Brisby was right. They had to do something and once his Uncle got the plow running again he was likely going to crush the Brisby's home with Timmy inside it for sure and trying to save it a second time might prove to be more difficult. He and Mrs. Brisby almost got killed the first time and the second time they would surely get killed.

"I'm sorry," Chris said.

Mrs. Brisby looked down as she slid her hand through her hair still worried. "What am I going to do?"

"We'll think of something," the shrew said reassuringly. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Mrs. Brisby and Auntie Shrew started to walk away and Chris was about to follow them but he stopped in his tracks before he could follow them any further. He looked over his shoulder and he hummed to himself. He walked back over to see the plow and his Uncle and when he looked he saw the plow just staying still in place but he didn't see his Uncle near it but he did see him walking back to the farm. Chris looked over his shoulder and he saw that Mrs. Brisby and the shrew were out of sight. He then looked back to his Uncle and he breathed, knowing what he had to do.

* * *

Following his Uncle back to the farm was a pain in the ass for Chris because of his stubby legs. He wished for once that the stupid blue pendant on his necklace would make him run fast, fly, or better yet, change him back to his normal size because that would've made things go much faster. Surprisingly enough, Chris was keeping up with his Uncle at an accurate rate without him noticing him and that was the way he was going to keep it.

Eventually, Chris managed to follow his Uncle back to the farm and he was heading towards a big looking shed and as he did, Chris hid behind a tree and watched him carefully. He had to know what was going to happen because he needed to know if his Uncle Paul was going to continue to plow tomorrow as Mrs. Brisby predicted. He wanted to help and the way he could try to spy on his Uncle. He felt his stomach twisting and turning for some reason as he was watching his Uncle walk towards the shed. It was probably because he felt guilty. Guilt for what exactly?

"Paul?" Chris heard his Aunt call out his Uncle's name and he looked to her to see that she was walking towards him with confusion written all over her face while she was holding a watering can. "I thought you were going to go plow the fields? What happened?"

Paul stopped in his tracks and he looked at Beth. "I was plowing the fields but the fuel line cut for some reason. I was sure everything on the plow was secure in place… I guess I didn't look close enough."

"When do you think you're going to go and try to plow the fields again?"

"I can try again in five days. It was probably too wet to plow today. When the fifth day hits I'm sure the ground will be dry enough by then. I'm going to bring the plow back here with the bulldozer and see if I can try and fix it up."

_Five days… _Chris thought. _At least it won't be tomorrow but will it be enough time to get Timmy out of the fields? And how can we get Timmy out of there without him getting worse?_

Chris then heard his Aunt sigh. "So I'm guessing no sign of Chris?"

He held his breath when he heard his name. Chris could tell that his Aunt looked worried for him and that included his Uncle. It was clear from the looks of their eyes.

Paul sighed and then shook his head. "No sign of him… so I guess the police haven't found any traces of where Chris could be?"

Beth shook her head. "They haven't called today, but hopefully the Sherriff will call later with some news, hopefully, good news."

His hands started to scrape against the bark of the tree he was hiding behind as he so badly wanted to jump out from behind it and call out to them saying he was okay. Chris wanted to hug them tightly because he did miss them, he even missed Billy. However, his feet were stuck in place as he didn't dare move from his spot like he was stuck in glue. Even though he wanted to do what he imagined in his head he knew he couldn't. When he got back to his normal size he would go back to them.

"I'll be back soon," Paul said and he then walked inside the shed to get his bulldozer.

Beth then started to walk away and as she did, Chris could hear his Uncle start the bulldozer inside the shed. It took a few tries but eventually, he heard the bulldozer come to life. His Uncle was then driving the bulldozer out of the shed and to be sure his Uncle wouldn't see him, Chris hid more behind the tree. Paul then drove the bulldozer away from the farm and went to go get the plow.

A sigh of relief came spilling from Chris's mouth as he then thought about the conversation his Aunt and Uncle had. He wasn't going to lie he felt extremely homesick at the moment. Even though he would like to be sleeping in a comfy bed and have a nice meal he needed to focus on helping Mrs. Brisby. It was more important than worrying about if he would be back into his normal size anytime soon.

Chris decided that it was time to head on back to Mrs. Brisby's house and he started to turn in a random direction to get back to Mrs. Brisby's home but when he walked a few inches in the direction he was going without looking he felt a warm breeze blow through his hair. However, when he got a taste of the warm breeze it didn't taste like some breezes would taste or feel. Instead, it tasted like… cat food.

His eyes widened nervously when he then heard a yawn and some purring. Chris slowly looked up and he almost had a heart attack when he saw Dragon in front of him sleeping in the sunlight. His breath was caught in his throat as he watched Dragon sleeping. The last time he saw him was yesterday and he broke the tree branch on a tree that he and Mrs. Brisby were on and they both fell towards the waterfall. Chris was somewhat glad to know that Dragon was alive and that Billy wouldn't cry about him being dead like he cried about his old pet dead. However, he didn't want Dragon to see him after he cut his back with his pocket knife.

It seemed that Dragon hadn't noticed Chris's presence at the moment and Chris knew that if he even made one wrong move, Dragon would wake up and attack him like a wild cat he was. He carefully started to walk backward slowly as far as he could and as he did he tried to breathe steadily so it wouldn't catch the cat's attention. He knew that cats had good hearing and not only that he also knew that cats had good senses of smell. He was toast if he made one error either way. This thought didn't comfort him at all but he tried not to think about it too much.

As he kept walking backward he didn't even think to notice that a branch was behind him and at that, the heel of his foot pressed on it and it snapped. Chris flinched and froze in fear as he kept staring at Dragon, waiting for the worst. Dragon started to move and as he did, Chris held his breath. He cursed in his head for not watching his step and because he didn't he was in for some trouble.

However, to Chris's surprise, Dragon only rolled over to his other side and he continued to take his catnap. Chris wasn't sure how to respond to that but either way, he didn't want to stick around here too long. He looked around him to make sure no one saw him and when he thought that the coast was clear he continued to back away from Dragon, really making sure he wouldn't step on anything else. The first time was only lucky and as for the second time, he might not be so lucky.

When Chris was about halfway away from Dragon near a couple of rocks and a tree, he then noticed something strange beyond the barn and the house. He wasn't sure what it was but it looked to be small gray figures and they seemed to be around Chris's height, only they were a few inches taller. Confused on what he was trying to see, Chris wanted a better look at these strange figures and so when he saw the couple of rocks that led up to a tree branch on a tree hanging close to the ground he decided to climb it. Chris carefully got on the first rock then stepped onto the other rock that was bigger and Chris managed to haul himself up onto it and then he grabbed the tree branch above him and then he pulled himself up, trying not to fall from it and it'd been a long time since the last time Chris even climbed a tree and luckily his memories haven't failed him as he was now sitting on it like he was a kid again. He tried not to look down for if he did he might freak out and fall from the tree branch and cause some sort of damage to his body parts. Even though Chris wasn't one to be afraid of heights he was short and with him being short and sitting on a tree branch that was above the ground a few feet he felt nauseated about falling from it.

Chris shielded his eyes from the sun as he looked to where he saw the gray figures and when he did he started to get a better look at what they were. They were indeed small and they were rodents and not just any rodents. These rodents were ones that made people have musophobia.

Rats.

Chris's brow furrowed as he looked at these rats confused. They looked like they were marching in columns. Not exactly marching but they were slowly moving in a line. There were a dozen of them at least and at first, Chris could not see what they were up to but then he saw something moving between them and behind them.

"What the…?" Chris whispered to himself.

He saw what looked like a thick piece of rope, a long piece. However, Chris noticed that it didn't look like rope. It looked more like… cable. Yes, there was no denying it, these rats were carrying cable. Chris could see that it was an electric cable, the heavy black kind used wiring and strung on telephone poles.

Chris blinked his eyes to make sure he was seeing this correctly and sure enough his eyes weren't playing with him. Those rats were stealing from his Uncle and Aunt's house. He started to wonder why on earth these rats needed cable. Out of everything and they took cable? Did they think it was food or something like it was black licorice? Rats were known for taking food from garbage cans and such but seeing them have cable did not make any sense whatsoever.

He then remembered his Aunt talking to him about how they were having a rat situation and these very rats must've been the rats that his Aunt was referring to. Chris then wondered how they managed to not get caught already and how Dragon hadn't picked up their scent. Speaking of Dragon he still hadn't woken up yet which was strange considering he was a very active cat, even when he was a kitten he was very active. Chris then remembered that Dragon was growing old and when pets like Dragon grow older they get too tired to do anything and just sleep all day. Either that or Dragon was just too lazy.

Chris continued to watch them and he saw that they were taking the cable in the direction of where his Aunt's wild rose bush was. His Aunt cherished that rose bush and she made sure that it was perfectly healthy almost every day like her life depended on it. It was a nice looking rose bush and it was concealed and protected by dense tangles of fiercely sharp thorns. Then to Chris's surprise, he saw that these rats were going through some entrance in the rose bush like it was nothing.

It seemed like he was watching these rats for a while and as he did he could see that these rats knew what they were doing and they were as well-drilled as if they were soldiers in the military. It was incredible what Chris was seeing and these rats were working together to haul the cable to the rose bush and as if it was a signal they would all pull together, moving the wire about a foot. Then they would pause, rest, and heave again. After about twenty minutes the rats all then made it inside the rose bush and the last bit of wire then disappeared without any sort of trace.

The whole time he was watching he was dumbfounded. Who would have anything to say about it? This whole scene he saw was about as unexplainable as finding a dollar bill on the side of the street and wondering who dropped it.

His back then met with the tree and Chris tried to put this all together. Rats breaking into the house and stealing without getting unnoticed by anyone. How was that possible? Chris rubbed his temples finding this very confusing.

However, he did not want to think about this right now and decided that he needed to get back to the Brisby's home. He wasn't sure if he should tell Mrs. Brisby about what he saw because he didn't know if she would say if he was crazy or not and crazy if he was or not he saw what he saw and that scene he saw would not be erased from his mind.

* * *

After some time of walking, Chris finally made it back to the Brisby's house. He didn't bother to take notice that he was now sore again from all the walking and running he's been doing as he couldn't stop thinking about what he saw. He sighed and tried to stop thinking about it but it kept coming back to his mind nonstop. The plow was gone and he heard and noticed his Uncle bringing it back to the farm.

He then walked inside the house and started to descend the stairs and as he did he saw Mrs. Brisby and her three children sitting at their makeshift table and they were quietly eating. Mrs. Brisby had a makeshift cup in her hands and she then took a sip of her drink from it. It seemed like they were still frightened of the incident that happened a while ago and Chris could understand that.

When he got to the bottom of the steps the four mice looked up at Chris and when they did, they looked relieved to see him. "Chris!" The children shouted and they got up from their seats and went to hug Chris and this took Chris by surprise.

He only knew these three for a couple of days and already they were hugging him like he was part of their family. "Hey, you three."

"What happened, Chris?" Martin asked. "You just disappeared but now here you are."

Chris tried to smile and he wasn't even sure if his smile looked like a real one. "It's a long story but I'm back with no broken bones."

"We were wondering if you'd ever come back," Teresa said. "We knew you would though."

Chris then felt his jean jacket being tugged and he looked down to see Cynthia tugging at it as she looked up at him. "I mostly knew you would though."

"She's been saying nonstop that you'd be coming back and she didn't want to believe that you wouldn't return."

Cynthia nodded.

_Cynthia is too cute, _Chris thought. "Well thank you for believing that I would return, Cynthia, even you two."

The children smiled up at Chris. "We like having you around, Chris," Martin said. "You're better to be around with than Auntie Shrew."

"Martin," Mrs. Brisby said after being silent for some time now and she had her brow furrowed.

Martin looked at Mrs. Brisby. "It's true though." Mrs. Brisby's expression didn't change and then Martin sighed. "Sorry…"

Mrs. Brisby placed her cup down and then sighed. "Children, do you mind getting some fresh air? I need to talk to Chris and I'll call you when you can come back in."

The children looked at each other but obeying their Mother they started to make their way outside. Chris could see that she was thinking about something and that she needed to talk to him about it. Without hesitation, Chris walked over to the nearest chair, pulled it out, and then sat in it. He then folded his hands and placed them onto the table. Mrs. Brisby was silent as she was deep in thought and Chris tilted his head.

"Where were you?" Mrs. Brisby asked.

Chris felt bad that he didn't tell Mrs. Brisby that he was following his Uncle back to the farm. He was in too much of a rush that he didn't want to lose any information that could've proved to be useful. Luckily he got the information he needed.

"Sorry, I was following my Uncle back to the farm for a good reason and I'm glad I did," Chris said. "My Uncle's not going to plow tomorrow; he's going to plow in five days. I'm not sure if that'll be enough time to figure things out but that's what I heard my Uncle say." He didn't want to mention the part about the rats to her but when it felt right maybe then he would tell her about it.

Mrs. Brisby's eyes widened at the news Chris said. "Five days…" She then looked away as she was thinking about something again.

"Something on your mind?" Chris asked.

Mrs. Brisby was tracing her finger around the top of her makeshift cup as she was still thinking about something. "Auntie Shrew told me something that I should consider doing…"

Chris sat back at his seat as he was now interested in knowing what the shrew told her. "What did she tell you?"

Mrs. Brisby was silent for a minute but she then sighed and looked back at Chris. "While we were heading back to my house she told me that I should consider seeing… the Great Owl."

Chris furrowed his brow confused. He wondered why the shrew would tell Mrs. Brisby to see some sort of owl. Did she want to put her life in danger? He could see that Mrs. Brisby didn't want to see this owl because they did after all _eat _mice.

He then wondered why Mrs. Brisby called this owl great. There were plenty of owls around the area and this supposed owl was known to be the great one. Chris, however, had one big question in mind: Who was the Great Owl?

"The Great Owl?" Chris said. "Who's the Great Owl?"

"He is one of the oldest owls to live in the forest," Mrs. Brisby said. "Some say in the world. Whenever someone doesn't know what to do some of the animals go to him in hopes of seeking some sort of guidance. I don't know much about him but what I do know is that he'll sometimes answer your question and sometimes he won't, it depends on how he feels."

Chris had read about owls and in one book he read that in Greek mythology, owls were known for as a sign of wisdom. These owls were said to be connected to the goddess of wisdom, Minerva. Owls also had a fearsome reputation over the centuries and Chris read about how many human cultures have feared the owl and connected them to many negative things, darkness and mysteries. Chris also recalled reading how other cultures have seen the owl as a symbol of prophecy and wisdom. It was often connected to the nighttime, the moon, and the feminine side of life.

They were interesting facts which brought Chris to wonder if this owl was wise and would maybe help them. However, he didn't want to push Mrs. Brisby into going because she did look scared to even meet the Great Owl. If she didn't want to go then he wouldn't pressure her into going. However, something within him told him that the shrew was right about seeing the Great Owl.

It might've been a stupid idea to even consider seeing the Great Owl but Chris thought that maybe they should take that chance. Even if it might kill them.

* * *

**A/N- Hey, guys! Another chapter down and I know I said I was going to make some corrections and changes to this story but I thought screw it and got this chapter updated because I think some of you were waiting a long time for this chapter to come. Well, here you go! I will continue to make the corrections and changes to the other chapters soon so hopefully it'll look neater then.**

**If you noticed the chapter title you might recognize the same chapter name from the book and if you read the book you'll know what I mean. Plus I didn't know what to call this chapter so that's how I ended up with that chapter title XD**

**Also, I would like to give a big thank you to Taylor Marshall. Taylor has given me a suggestion for the state of setting of where the story should take place and if you read it it was Virginia. Taylor has also given me another state setting of another particular place but I won't say anything about it _yet_. In the sequel it will be said though. I didn't even think about a state of setting but I would like to thank Taylor Marshall again for that and the credit goes to you Taylor, thank you once again.**

**I will have another chapter on here posted soon and until then, later!**


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